MAKHUDU SEFARA | Ramaphosa dodged a bullet, but was that the best Team SA could do?

For many South Africans, it was sufficient that President Cyril Ramaphosa “dodged a bullet”, as it were, content merely with escaping the dreaded treatment Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was previously subjected to.

The task, however, was much more than surviving a White House bully. The focus ought to have been on whether enough was done to dispel false claims of a genocide, dispel false claims of expropriation of land without compensation and lastly to correctly characterise the spectre of crime as something affecting all South Africans (something Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi did well).

In the end, Team South Africa did far better than Zelensky, but could have driven home the message more forcefully. The team was underwhelming and disjointed where the occasion demanded co-ordinated messaging, agreed upon ahead of the Oval encounter.

Watching Ernie Else appeal to the United States and praise it for being a “great ally” who supported (apartheid) South Africa in the war (against efforts to bring democracy to South Africa) in Angola was not only cringeworthy, it proved our disorganisation. When Ramaphosa introduced DA leader John Steenhuisen as a white man when this was plain, it reeked of desperation where nous and subtlety would have sufficed.

The main speakers, however, did smuggle in key words — minus the necessary force about the absence of genocide. Ramaphosa started the meeting well, confidently articulating South Africa’s position, even volunteering to answer the question about what it would take for the US to believe there was no genocide in South Africa.

While Ramaphosa correctly explains away Malema as a leader of a small party, he doesn’t provide an explanation about this song and how the Constitutional Court has made a ruling that he, as president, couldn’t do anything about.

He said: “I am not going to be repeating what I have been saying [that there is no genocide in South Africa against Afrikaners]. I would say if there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you these three gentlemen [golfing champions Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and South Africa’s wealthiest businessman Johann Rupert] would not be here.” He then throws in his masterpiece, the real reason Steenhuisen was included on the trip: “Steenhuisen would not be with me. It would take President Trump listening to their stories, their perspectives” for him to realise there was no genocide of farmers in South Africa.

And the wheel appeared to come off at this point, with Trump rowing back: “But, Mr President, we have thousands of stories, we have documentaries, news stories. I could show you a couple of things.”

The tone of a meeting that was cordial and collegial became accusatorial, with the White House whipping out videos of EFF leader Julius Malema singing Kill the Boer. His voice engulfs the Oval Office. “People are going to occupy land. That’s who we are. Never be scared to kill. Killing is part of a revolutionary act. Shoot to kill. Nyamazan! Go after the white man,” Malema is heard in a surprise video put together for the meeting.

While Ramaphosa correctly explains away Malema as a leader of a small party, he doesn’t provide an explanation about this song and how the Constitutional Court has made a ruling that he, as president, couldn’t do anything about.

When symbolic crosses along a highway are shown, Ramaphosa asks, correctly, where this was. But he could easily have explained that in South Africa, it’s illegal to plant so many graves on the sideways of a highway. It’s courteous to just ask where this was, but with the world media on you, it is crucial to eviscerate misinformation.

Steenhuisen did say farm attacks “affect all farmers in SA, particularly stock theft. It has disproportionate effects on smallholder black farmers”. But the star of the show was Rupert, who when probed by Trump about how bad crime was, responded: “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. We need your help, sir.”

In his comment, Rupert also expresses frustration that Steenhuisen is focused on not hurting his constituency rather than confronting the truth about the general effect of crime in the country.

To his credit, Ramaphosa did say: “There is criminality in our country. People who do get killed unfortunately through criminal activity are not only white people. The majority of them are black people.”

But Trump was not interested in this point. “The farmers are not black,” he retorted.

It is to this that he needed to say the farmworkers, who are not on the screen and who also get affected by crime, including by farmers, are black. Crime affects all.

When the White House spectacle ended, questions remained about whether enough was done to rid the country’s name of slander on the back of misinformation spread by the world’s most powerful office. Did Ramaphosa, Rupert and the golf champions do enough or were they talking across purposes?

Perhaps the tougher questions will be behind closed doors. Yet, on the world stage, a great opportunity was not fully used. Team SA tried, yet the effort was not good enough. But, as a colleague says, who wins an argument against Trump? Hindsight, they say, is perfect vision. And some things are easier said away from the White House than others.