Ramaphosa expects Trump to visit South Africa for G20 summit in November
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he expected his US counterpart Donald Trump to attend a Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg in November despite a tense meeting at the White House on Wednesday.
“I expect him to be coming to South Africa,” Ramaphosa told reporters after the meeting.
Ramaphosa said he noted to Trump the United States’ role in creating the club of the world’s largest economies, highlighting the importance of the US assuming the G20 presidency for 2026.
“It’s important that the United States should continue playing a key role,” Ramaphosa said. “I want to hand over the presidency of the G20 to President Trump in November, and I said he needs to be there. I don’t want to hand over the presidency of the G20 to an empty chair.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this year boycotted a G20 meeting of foreign ministers which also took place in Johannesburg.
Ramaphosa insists ‘there is no genocide’ after Trump meeting
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa insisted that, contrary to claims made by his US counterpart Donald Trump, there is “no genocide in South Africa.”
The issue, which has been central to recently strained ties between the two countries, was dramatically brought up during the encounter in the Oval Office.
Speaking at a press conference after meeting with Trump at the White House, Ramaphosa said “there is just no genocide in South Africa.”
During the tense scenes, Ramaphosa and members of his delegation repeatedly denied that minority white South Africans were facing deadly violence and persecution.
The South African delegation did however acknowledge that violent crime is serious issue in their country, while pointing out that the majority of victims are Black.
Despite the tension on display, Ramaphosa said his government would continue holding talks with the Trump administration on a range of issues, including trade and industry, and that they had held “really good in-depth exchanges.”
“I was rather pleased that there is a firm agreement and undertaking that we are going to continue engaging. So there is no disengagement. For us that was one of the key outcomes,” the South African leader said.
He also said he wants to boost the South African economy with US investments, which he said would help tackle the security issues in his nation.
Ramaphosa also mentioned the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which gives certain African nations duty-free access to the US market.
The initiative is due to expire in September, and there have been doubts about whether it will be extended given Trump’s tariffs and his administration’s volatile approach to international trade.
The South African leader said discussions on extending AGOA would continue.
After the Oval Office meeting, the delegations met for a working lunch, which Ramaphosa said was also attended by Trump ally, South African-born billionaire Elon Musk.
Ramaphosa told the press conference that Musk had raised the issue of his Tesla electric cars being made available for sale in South Africa.
The South African president also said that use of Starlink — the satellite internet service owned by Musk’s SpaceX — was not discussed during the lunch.
Trump shows DR Congo image as proof of ‘genocide’ in SA
In addition to a video, Donald Trump presented Cyril Ramaphosa with a stack of printed news articles that the US president said contained evidence of an ongoing genocide in South Africa against white people.
As he sifted through the papers, Trump told the South African president that they showed “death of people — death, death, death, horrible death.”
He said the press clippings were all from articles that had been published in “the last few days” and said “these are all people that recently got killed.”
The disputed allegations of persecution of the white Afrikaner minority — espoused by Trump’s ally and adviser, South Africa-born billionaire Elon Musk — are a major part of why bilateral ties between the two countries have been so strained in recent months.
Among the stack of documents was an article from February published by a fringe conservative US online publication called “American Thinker,” AFP news agency reported.
The article featured an image of Red Cross workers handling body bags, which Trump said was evidence of “burial sites all over the place.”
“These are all white farmers that are being buried,” he said.
However, contrary to Trump’s claim, the image is from a Youtube video of Red Cross workers dealing with the aftermath of a mass jailbreak in the eastern Congolese city of Goma, in which women were raped and burned alive.
Source : https://www.dw.com/en/trump-confronts-south-africas-ramaphosa-with-genocide-claim/live-72618239
