What if Trump does to Ramaphosa what he did to Zelensky? Expert weighs in

AS PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa heads to the United States for a high-stakes meeting with US counterpart Donald Trump, an international relations expert says the task ahead for the Pretoria delegation is monumental.

The DFA reported earlier that DA leader John Steenhuisen will be part of Ramaphosa’s delegation visiting Trump in a heightened effort by Pretoria to mend relations and also clarify misinformation about the government allegedly targeting white Afrikaners.

The South African delegation is set to meet with Trump at the White House on Wednesday, aiming to restore bilateral ties and confront persistent misinformation.

In an interview with broadcaster Newzroom Afrika, a senior researcher at Centre for African Diplomacy and Leadership at the University of Johannesburg, Professor Oscar van Heerden, said the engagements between Ramaphosa and Trump will likely be choreographed, and we may have a scenario like the February degeneration of Trump’s meeting with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. 

“We are told the South African delegation asked for an in-camera conversation, in other words they did not want the media to be there, but knowing Donald Trump, this is a whole choreographed, staged situation," said Van Heerden.

“The cameras are going to be there. There won’t be enough time given to the president to explain at length why these things are lies, why there is a need for a trade agreement.

"I do hope President Ramaphosa has a strategy, whether it is touching the knee, touching the shoulder of the president, looking at the camera and saying, 'But it is not true', and so on and so forth," he said.

He added that dispelling the lies about the situation in South Africa is easy - if the South African delegation is given the opportunity.

“He (Ramaphosa) is calling it a working visit. I do hope once the 30 minutes, the cameras have played out in a negative way, in the Zelensky way, in an embarrassing way, but the president will then take time at least a day or two to travel around the United States to meet with Congress, to meet with the Black Caucus to talk to Americans directly, far away from the west wing (in the White House)," said Van Heerden.

He said Ramaphosa must find the time to explain South Africa’s position and why it is important to dispel the lies.

Last week, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) insisted that the group of 49 Afrikaners who left South Africa, heading to the United States under Trump’s offer, are not refugees.