Now that the dust has settled on the SA delegation’s ambush in the White House, and the pundits and pokers have had their say, it’s time to reflect.
This was a geopolitical performance, staged for Donald Trump’s base and future campaign adverts, with Cyril Ramaphosa as an unwitting extra in the US president’s long-running reality show about “persecuted white farmers”.
What looked like a domestic stunt aimed at stirring up right-wing voters also has dangerous implications for how African leaders are framed and received, particularly as Africa, when run properly, becomes a global frontier for resources and investment, with growing diplomatic clout.
Imagine walking into a meeting thinking you’re going to talk about trade or co-operation, only to find yourself ambushed in front of cameras by a man who still thinks The Art of the Deal is a diplomatic strategy. Add Elon Musk lurking in the background like a Bond villain in beta-testing mode, and you have something that feels more like a deleted scene from Veep than a serious bilateral meeting.
All that was missing was a Maga cap and a bowl of biltong on the table.
Trump had the script written. This was no diplomatic accident; white genocide in SA is a cornerstone myth of far-right grievance politics. Trump was signalling to his base, but also asserting a worldview where African leaders are cast as threats to Western heritage and white civilisation. Did Ramaphosa’s coterie of golfers, a home-grown billionaire and a serendipitously appointed white minister for farming dent the docket?
No. You had Ramaphosa in damage control mode and Steenhuisen indicting MK and the EFF, while Els thanked America for supporting “us” in the Angolan war, and Rupert blamed “illegal aliens” for farm murders.
When you aim to play in the big league of Brics and the G20, it would do to remember that it comes with global attention, and global ambushes.
Better input came from Zingiswa Losi, a trade unionist and president of Cosatu. All in all, a co-ordination and messaging disaster. This, while Elon Musk watched from the sidelines; his presence lending an unspoken endorsement to the spectacle — a tech bro halo over a nationalist narrative.
The ambush, however, was more reflective of deeper anxieties about Africa’s shifting allegiances than Trump’s PR play. As Brics grows stronger and African countries hold more cards in the global resource game, the old narratives are being dusted off: in a desperate bid to secure economic hegemony, undermine the credibility of your rivals politically.
It’s all about geopolitics. African-led diplomatic and economic initiatives, like the African Continental Free Trade Area, or mineral alliances with others count for nothing in the Trumpian agenda — where all that matters is “are you with us or not?”.
For all Ramaphosa’s diplomacy, what he did was to feed the troll with scant evidence of any anticipation of such traps. When you aim to play in the big league of Brics and the G20, it would do to remember that it comes with global attention, and global ambushes.
The lesson here is that grievance politics is not just a US phenomenon. As right-wing populism spreads in Europe and elsewhere, African leaders must prepare for more of these staged moral confrontations with Africa repositioned, not as a partner, but as a villain in someone else’s domestic theatre — be it Ibrahim Taoré’s Sahel or Cyril Ramaphosa’s south.
When Ramaphosa next visits the White House, he might want to check if the cameras are rolling and whether Musk is in the wings.
While Brics may be about building a new world order, aspirant players like SA need to be aware of Trump’s agenda and be clear about alignment and allegiances. It’s nigh impossible to play two fiddles at the same time — ask John Steenhuisen, he’d know.
Cachalia is a former DA MP and public enterprises spokesperson
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