WATCH | Ramaphosa’s white delegation members help push back against Trump narrative

President Cyril Ramaphosa relied on the testimonies of his white delegation to refute claims of white persecution in South Africa during a joint media briefing at the Oval Office in Washington DC on Wednesday.

While Ramaphosa joined President Donald Trump on the infamous yellow seats where the world witnessed a dressing down of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky recently, Ramaphosa took a softer approachwith his counterpart, taking some of his “favourite South Africans” with him to the talks.

The meeting between the two men was delayed by almost 30 minutes when Ramaphosa appeared at the gates of the White House to be greeted by Trump. The two men gestured to the media before moving into the White House.

Seconds later, South African billionaire Johann Rupert, renowned golfing champions Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, followed along with Ramaphosa’s ministers.

The meeting was initially planned for the two heads of state to have lunch, however, this changed with an announcement that they would have a joint meeting beforehand. 

During the almost hour-long engagement, Trump pushed the narrative that white South Africans were fleeing their country in fear of persecution, accusing the government of confiscating their land.

Trump said his secretary of state Marco Rubio had reported to him that he had never seen anything like it, making reference to the number of South Africans seeking refuge.

Following an almost 20-minute long back and forth between the two heads of state on the subject, Ramaphosa pointed to DA leader and agriculture minister John Steenhuisen to testify on behalf of the government.

Steenhuisen said there was a rural safety problem in South Africa that required policing resources and a different strategy to deal with it. He said the majority of white South Africans and farmers wanted to stay in South Africa.

“I'm working with my colleagues in the justice cluster to start making farm attacks and stock theft a priority crime, and it affects all farmers in South Africa, particularly stock theft, which has a disproportionate effect on small black farmers.”

Steenhuisen said the ANC and the DA had formed a government of national unity with a mission to keep former president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party and the EFF out of power.

“That is why, after 30 years of us exchanging bombs across the floor in parliament and trying to get one over on each other, we've decided to join hands precisely to keep that lot out of government,” he said.

Rupert said he was the biggest target of the EFF, adding that crime affected all South Africans.

“‘And if you look at our statistics, a lot of these murders, firstly, it's unemployed and illegal aliens ... The crime is terrible, sir. But Mr Steenhuisen won't admit to it, but he runs the Western Cape, where I live, and the biggest murder rate is in the Cape Flats gangs. We've got gang warfare,” Rupert said.

Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi said growing the economy was important to US-South Africa relations. She said South Africa must deal with the issue of porous borders.

According to her, there was a willing buyer, willing seller policy, and there was no expropriation without compensation in South Africa.

“There is no doubt about it that we are a violent nation, for a number of reasons, and we are not condoning anything, but if you go into the rural areas where the black majority are, you would see women and the elderly being raped and killed ... the problem in South Africa is not necessarily about race, but about crime.”

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