A few weeks after my father died in June 2018, I got a call from President Cyril Ramaphosa. He offered me his condolences and, because we are almost the same age, we were able briefly to reminisce about our dads. It was a warm and thoughtful call and I’ve never forgotten it.
Since then I’ve looked for more signs of the compassion and empathy I was offered that day, and I’m sad to say it is almost never there in public. I looked in vain for it during Covid. And again when surgeons at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital wrote begging for his help when the provincial government did literally nothing after a massive fire devastated its oncology resources. He never replied.
He never, or extremely seldom, visits the sick or the old or the poor or the frightened, and there are so many of those in the country he runs. How would it hurt him to try?
It’s almost as if there are two Cyrils. A caring friend and a remote politician. I suppose the latter stood him in good stead on Wednesday as he sat next to US President Donald Trump in the White House trying to face down a reprehensible man intent on shaking him down over fabricated claims that white Afrikaner farmers in South Africa are the victims of genocide and land theft.
A lot of people think he should have fought back harder as Trump piled lie upon lie about life in our country, but I think he did well. He kept his composure and had the foresight to bring a smart mix of South Africans into the Oval Office. As Trump tried to provoke him, first DA leader and agriculture minister John Steenhuisen brilliantly intervened, followed by a critical and possibly deciding contribution from Johann Rupert and a chilling description of black rural life from Cosatu leader Zingiswa Losi.
It may be too much to hope the visit will result in a gentler, kinder country. There are local elections next year, an ANC leadership election at the end of 2027 and a general election in 2029
All in, Ramaphosa had entered the viper’s nest and survived. It was no small feat. And at no stage was Trump “disrespected” — which he thoroughly deserved to be. Social media obviously went berserk, bursting with praise and criticism of every word uttered in the room, most of it of little value. Our world now belongs to the extremes and, as we know, the middle ground is always to be avoided. It is where the accidents happen.
It is easy to criticise when you weren’t there. The room was stuffed full and mostly hostile, and Trump was showing off. When you have 30 seconds to speak under pressure like that it is almost impossible to be immaculate, and anyway you’re talking to an authentic crackpot.
The Oval Office ambush was followed by a lunch lasting nearly two hours, a long time for leaders to be together and, having had his public show, Trump may even have softened a little. Ramaphosa seemed sure he’d at least attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November. That would greatly annoy Ramaphosa’s right-wing critics.
Bigger questions remain about what was really achieved. The pause on Trump’s 30% tariffs on imports from South Africa ends on July 9. The 30% would lay waste to the auto industry here and potentially cost many hundreds of thousands of jobs. Some of the work to do a trade deal at least began in Washington.
It may be too much, however, to hope the visit will result in a gentler, kinder country. There are local elections next year, an ANC leadership election at the end of 2027 and a general election in 2029.
Ramaphosa may have been persuaded on Wednesday to do more about crime, but it is not his style. When he recently expressed surprise at the state of Johannesburg, where he lives, his response was to hold a meeting with the city’s “stakeholders”. He already has a business group looking at crime so what more could he do? He isn’t going to arm white farmers and he doesn’t have budget for more police.
And try as he might he is simply incapable of creating employment for the poor. “We want direct foreign investment,” he said in Washington, telling Trump there are 600 US companies invested in South Africa. But the truth is that number hasn’t changed in 30 years, largely because the ANC has almost completely encrusted the investment case here with ideologically-driven social policy that makes investing just too much trouble.
Even with the genocide accusation defanged, it is still the case that, however hard it may be, he just passed an entirely populist law to make it possible to expropriate property without any compensation. Why? Who does that with 45% unemployment? Why impose racial quotas in the workplace? How does that improve the investment case? Facts matter, yes. There’s no genocide but it’s also a fact that South Africa is a poorly governed and dangerous mess.
I’m glad he survived the White House, but unless he can find some deep inner strength to lead from the front, Ramaphosa is heading for a most ignominious political sunset.
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