A BLACK MOMENT IN THE WHITE HOUSE
A Golden Opportunity
I am a day early, but for good reason.
‘He should’ve opened his bek’: South Africans speak out about Ramaphosa / Trump meeting – this was the initial feeling, but with 48 hours to think about it all, here are my observations.
*The quote is from Capetonian Devon Abrahams
Here Trump holds up a picture of women [it’s in the Congo], in support of his false narrative of White Genocide and “horrible deaths” in South Africa.
It was guerilla theatre at its best - a form of radical political theatre performed in public spaces to engage unsuspecting audiences. TRUMP certainly showed himself to be a master of this provocative political art, but Ramaphosa did not lose his shit, which is the best way to send the serve back over the net. Ramaphosa behaved like an adult.
For perspective: I am a virulent anti-Trumpist, get irritated with Ramaphosa’s many inactions at home (though I know he is a constitutionalist), am not a great fan of Steenhuisen, and have a grudging respect for Johann Rupert, eldest son of my long-time neighbours.
When the cameras were off, we are told, it was all jokes & laughter and a cordial atmosphere prevailed. Much work was done, and the result is a net + for South Africa. Here’s what went down:
A Global Audience
The White House meeting was watched by millions around the world. It has clearly touched a nerve, and South Africa was suddenly center stage again. According to Podscribe's March 2025 rankings, The MeidasTouch Podcast secured the #1 spot in downloads and views per month, and its YouTube channel has accumulated over 6.5 billion views across its content. The next morning its video podcast had already accumulated more than a million views, much more than the average.
Fake News
Trump’s pictures of white genocide were mostly false, even using one with women, but it was in the Congo. There were also images of rows of crosses, which he falsely claimed were a burial site for white farmers. BBC reports that those were not graves, but a temporary memorial for a white couple that was murdered in KwaZulu-Natal in 2020.
No White Genocide
Team South Africa rebutted the white genocide claims but also pointed out that there is too much violence and both blacks and whites are killed across the board. It seems that most news outlets now accept that the South Africans manage to successfully counter that narrative – and in a credible way.
No Plane
President Ramaphosa apologized [in jest] for not being able to give Trump an airplane. This landed better than his strategists thought, as American commentators now say that it is proof of how the outside world is viewing corruption in the Trump administration.
Perhaps some sanity
A door has been opened. From behind the scenes, an insider’s remark speaks volumes, “Sorry, there was no drama.” Apparently Trump was the perfect host and Ramaphosa used his deep knowledge of conflict management, which he honed into a kind of superpower [which often irritates us and seen as inaction] during our constitutional negotiations, managing to open the door with his request for this meeting with his hand-picked TEAM SOUTH AFRICA, to deliver.
As legendary political operator James Carville remarked on what matters, in another context, “It’s the winning, stupid.”
A NOTE TO TRUMP’S FAKE WHITE AFRIKANER REFUGEES:
*White South Africans are 7% of the population but still own 72% of the land.