South African president Cyril Ramaphosa‘s meeting with Donald Trump in Washington on Wednesday could be a defining moment in US-South African affairs, given the fraught relationship both countries have endured in recent years.
According to South Africa’s presidency, Ramaphosa sought out the engagement with the US president “to reset the strategic relationship between the two countries”, which has deteriorated dramatically since Trump assumed office for his second term in January.
The meeting at the White House comes over a week after the US welcomed 59 Afrikaners, a white minority group that controls much of South Africa’s commercial agriculture, as “refugees”.
Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that Afrikaners face a “genocide” in their home country because of their race and that the government is discriminating against them under its new land expropriation laws. Ramaphosa has outrightly denied these assertions and has accused the US president of spreading misinformation.
No political party or research group in South Africa has supported the claim that Afrikaners are facing a genocide. Attacks against members of the minority group, who are the descendants of South Africa’s Dutch colonisers, are seen as part of the country’s chronic crime problem that affects all communities.
However, the difficulties between the two nations run far deeper than the disparate views on Afrikaners’ treatment. The US is also at odds with Ramaphosa’s administration over the genocide case it has taken against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
South Africa has accused Israel of committing crimes against humanity in Palestine during its war in Gaza against Hamas.
In addition, Washington has taken umbrage with Pretoria in recent years over its desire to foster a multipolar world order and its refusal to cut ties with Iran, China and Russia. In response, South Africa has insisted the US will not dictate which countries it can have relationships with.
Since coming to office Trump has cut all overseas aid to South Africa and hit the country’s exporters with 31 per cent tariffs, citing its treatment of Afrikaners for its stance.
There is also an expectation locally that South Africa will no longer benefit from the preferential trade it has received under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. The US legislation assists African exporters and is up for renegotiation later this year.
Most South Africans believe the US has taken these decisions to punish South Africa for refusing to do its bidding.
In the week leading up to Wednesday’s meeting, South Africans have been left to wonder what kind of reception their president will receive in the Oval Office, given how poorly Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy was treated by the US president and the vice-president JD Vance in February.
However, the hope is that Ramaphosa, who is well-known for his negotiation skills, can strike a trade agreement with Trump, as he places a high priority on business deals that are beneficial to his country.
Institute for Security Studies senior researcher Priyal Singh said he hoped the Oval Office meeting would not turn into a “US publicity stunt to hammer home a false narrative about South Africa, and that Ramaphosa must just sit there and take it”.
But Singh is concerned about how the talks will unfold as both sides seem entrenched in their positions.
“I doubt there is much appetite within the government for South Africa to make meaningful concessions, and it is unclear what the US might offer Ramaphosa were he willing to compromise on any of the issues that are up for discussion,” he said.
