Premature to claim White House encounter as a South African slam dunk

The local consensus is that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to the White House was a great triumph. Overwhelming though that consensus is, it’s mistaken.

The pre-trip narrative was that, firstly, the SA team would put President Donald Trump right about the “fake news” that led him to grant refugee status to Afrikaners, caused him to mistake land redress for property confiscation and led him to confuse economic transformation with racial discrimination.

Second, SA would make it clear it would not be dictated to on such “internal matters”, or in how it conducted its foreign relations. Nevertheless, the main goal, once Trump had been put in his place, was to walk away with a solid trade deal. That’s not how it played out.

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To date, there has been no announcement of any trade deal. As far as we know, given that some of the meeting was conducted behind closed doors, the foreign affairs friction was not even mentioned. Instead, the hubris that underlies the ANC’s strategy in dealing with the US has caused another diplomatic gaffe.

Having had its previous US ambassador declared persona non grata because of rude remarks about Trump, it made the same mistake again. Ramaphosa chose Mcebisi Jonas, chair of MTN Group, as his special envoy to Washington.

Not only did Jonas in 2020 make deeply insulting remarks about Trump, but MTN is embroiled in four US lawsuits in which it is alleged that the company knowingly helped Iran-sponsored terrorist groups. Jonas didn’t attend the White House meeting, supposedly at “his own request”.

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The Presidency spokesperson has since conceded that “displeasure” from the Trump administration was the reason for Jonas’ absence and that Ramaphosa may have to find a new special envoy.

As for the schooling of Trump, well, what a disaster that was. Far from being smacked down, Trump placed the issues of racial violence and expropriation of private property under a mercilessly harsh global spotlight.

The media can do as much fact-checking as it likes to debunk the false narrative of a white genocide. Grassroots international public opinion doesn’t care to make much distinction between whether genocide is already underway or merely in the throes of being orchestrated.

Worldwide, ordinary people were appalled by the footage of 100 000 EFF supporters in pseudo-military garb promising to “kill the Boer, kill the farmer’’.

IN PICTURES: Ramaphosa meets Trump at the White House

Ramaphosa’s failure to condemn the chant unambiguously was a huge opportunity missed. All he managed was the mumbled response that such violent chants were “not government policy”, that most criminal violence was against blacks, and that whites were not being “disproportionately” killed.

Far from being a victory, the Oval Office debacle has put under critical scrutiny issues – political violence, expropriation without compensation, race quotas in employment and investment decisions – that until now have been largely glossed over by the media.

It makes for a deeply unflattering picture of South Africa in the outside world and, at home, it immensely complicates the power dynamics between the ANC and the DA, its major partner in the government of national unity (GNU).

Despite Trump’s bluster, shabby showmanship and sometimes reckless exaggerations, it’s premature to claim the White House encounter as a South African slam dunk. The exchange delivered no economic deal, it left exposed to the world some of the grimmest aspects of life in this country and it has exacerbated tensions in the GNU.

If this is a triumph, God knows what a defeat would look like.

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