Punished by Donald Trump but praised in South Africa

The South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and his delegation went to Washington this week in the hope of a boost and a reset after months of bitterness with the Donald Trump administration.

Instead, they received brutal diplomacy with high deployment, peppered with insults, and played in real time around the world. It was like a painful job review performed by a boss on a loud hail.

Praised by many for continuing to continue composing and reconciling in the light of a exercised Trump, while some also criticize the fact that they did not respond more powerfully to the accusations of Tump, the reality awaits Ramaphosa back in South Africa, where he and his African National Congress are confronted.

The ANC is in an uncomfortable coalition or government of National Unit (GNU) – with 10 other parties for almost a year, forced to share power after gloomy results in national elections.

There have been public fighting between parties within and outside the coalition on controversial land and health care legislation and attempts to encourage a budget by parliament to increase taxes for the most vulnerable. That almost saw the end of the coalition earlier this year.

The economy stagnates, crime figures are towering, as well as corruption and unemployment, public services are largely dysfunctional and infrastructure. There also seems to be very little responsibility for those who break the law.

This has meant uncomfortable and intense questions about Ramaphosa’s policy by various political parties, as well as civil society.

In the meantime, the ANC itself is unstable, because opposing factions are starting to jockey for a position for a crucial selection box in 2027 that will probably see a new party leader.

At the same time, the loudest critics of Ramaphosa, such as the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Julius Malema – who was prominent in Trump’s discredited file of “evidence” that genocide was committed against white Afrikaners in South Africa – still become louder.

So Ramaphosa was looking for a trade agreement that desperately needed the company and stability that would bring this to South Africa to stimulate real and sustainable economic growth and put people back to work.

Ramaphosa told Trump so much on Wednesday – that American investments were needed to tackle the unemployment that was a key factor in the high crime percentage of the country.

The risk that the AHOA Trade deal with the US. Perhaps not later this year will be renewed because of the isolationist worldview of Trump, it has made it all the more urgent. This gave South Africa tax-free access to the American market for certain goods and is credited for having the fragile economy of South Africa.

But the conversation about trade was overshadowed by Trump’s Oval Office in ambush to claims that white South Africans were being prosecuted.

However, there can still be a silver lining for Ramaphosa, and by extension his party, at least in his own country.

Yes, the task list is impossible for a long time, and yes, the pressure for the South African president to hold a coalition and party that is messy and deeply uncomfortable will wait for his return for him. And yes, the ANC is in the weakest position because it came to power 30 years ago. But it is still in power, even if it shares it.

It is crucial that Ramaphosa’s behavior with Trump reminded South Africans of his diplomatic family tree, and of his interest for the rules-based order of the country.

Together with Nelson Mandela, he is the largest Alliance Builder and the facilitator of South Africa ever. In the nerve center of negotiations of an end to the racist system of apartheid in the early nineties, and when holding South Africa together when many had predicted the fatal fracture. He remained calm, smiled and was previously confronted with many more bitter opponents.

More recently he sent the country out of the gloomy “Capture” Years of the Zuma administration and then through the difficult Covid -Lockdowns. And also held the ANC on his feet – only when it bumped home after the 2024 elections. He then took an injured ANC in the coalition policy and he survived as president despite opposition from his own party.

“I believe that if a snap survey was done today, we would see his personal reviews rising,” says the South African editor and founder of Expit.co.za Verashni Pillay.

“He excels in these high -pressure situations. He has this wealth of negotiating experience in demonstrably much more tense environments where real blood has been on the street and an imminent civil war.

Surveys have consistently referred to the Ramaphosa effect – the most recent From the Social Research Foundation last month, which suggests that without him the ANC would support even more than it already has, despite equally consistent criticism of the South African president that he is too slow and indecisive in tackling the biggest problems in the country. To a large extent that is still the case.

But this week, this week, apparently to bully Ramaphosa all over the world, to make it ridiculous and to embarrass, many South Africans actually reminded what he brings to the government and the country – a constant, stable and predictable center.

“I think what happened in the Oval Office, the idea of” if not Ramaphosa has not strengthened, who? “Says Pillay.

Some even think that what South Africans in the White House saw the Gnu will actually strengthen -supported as it is by Big Business, who will eventually reassure South Africans who looked at the drama.

“The meeting showed a United Front from South Africa, a public-private version that the country has been promoting for more than ten years. This for the GNU is a large political theater that translates into political capital,” says Itumeleng Makgetla, a political analyst at the University of Pretoria.

And indeed, the view was all there. Ramaphosa facilitated a passionate refutation of the worst of Trump’s wrong information through interventions from his partner in the GNU – Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen – and one of the richest people in South Africa, Johann Rupert – both white South Africans. If Trump understood the power of performance, Ramaphosa did that too.

“I think the GNU comes out that it looks pretty strong,” says Pillay. “The Gnu happened at a very good time for South Africa prior to this crisis. If it was only the ANC government in the Chamber, (Ramaphosa’s arguments) would not have landed. But can say that we have these parties representing white people in the government, is such a strong explanation.”

So what does this all mean for those who on the extreme flanks of South African politics and discourse?

After the lights were dimmed, Julius Malema was demonstrated by Trump who sang a song that, according to some, call for the murder of white farmers, although a court ruled that it is simply a political rhetoric. Could he harvest a domestic political capital by being put into the global spotlights?

Yes, say what. “For those in the country who are the Diatribe of President Trump and the US pretty tired of President Trump … This will probably reinforce Malema (s) parties such as the MK, because it will in fact say:” Look, we certainly cannot bend back for such individuals and lies, “says South African political analysts” tk “tkis.” Tkand. “Tkand.

But Pillay doesn’t agree.

“This will not translate into political power for Malema. Most of his top leaders have already done that left to the MK party of Jacob Zuma. Things for the Eff didn’t look good, even before Wednesday. Julius Malema’s brand of politics, wanting to burn everything down, to blame white people for everything … is entertaining, but it has not won any voices because most South Africans do not want their country to be burned down. “

That said, there is a considerable group of South Africans who want faster and more radical change -the election results for the MK party, a separate faction of the ANC, shows that.

And what about AfriForum – the Afrikaner interest group who attracted and spreading and distributing right -wing propaganda for a number of years by the right -wing propaganda in the hope?

Trump’s in discredit brought audiovisual presentation of what he said was the systematic extermination of white Afrikaner-farmers was the high water line of their lobby efforts, strengthened when they were in the Oval Office.

Despite extremely high levels of violent crime in South Africa, many are angry with the group. “In a sense, I think that many South Africans – even those who do not support the ANC – can finally see that there are certain people who are not for South Africa. Those people have been selected and that is positive in a way,” says Prof Poe.

“We know that a large number of African speakers are people of color,” says Pillay. “Afiforum gave a heavy blow to the cause of Afrikaners in South Africa by racing it.”

Afiforum’s Kallie Kriel has defended the group’s behavior on a local television channel, Newzoom Africa, “It was not Afiforum who calls on Genocidal to kill someone. If President Ramaphosa went there to tell the Americans that they don’t know what’s going on,” He said “he said. “He said.

While the dust settles from Wednesday’s drama, Ramaphosa will look and calculate. He was consistently central to the most important bending points in recent South African history when a sort of fracture took place and the land of course had to change dramatically. He reads these moments so well.

Wednesday’s revolution in Trump’s White House was perhaps not the economic and diplomatic reset with the US that was hoped, but could still mark a dramatic reset for Ramaphosa and the Gnu with the South African public.

Extra Recort by canceling in Johannesburg