This week the South Africa President took his delegation to the White House to try and sort things out. We know SA has been on a tipping point for some time with the country suffering from collapsing infrastructure due to corruption and staggeringly high crime rates.
Trump wanted to jump into the reports of the white farmer genocide and kind of tackled the SA delegation head on. This is a story that affects the entire country as farmers are seen as soft targets being stuck out in the middle of nowhere on their own. It does seem like the farmers are being targeted even though as a comparison in the daily numbers of murders countrywide they are a small percentage. I know many do not like Trump, but how many leaders ask the questions that need to be asked? This meeting may actually change things because they are addressing what is fundamentally wrong and you cannot ignore this.
When tackled on the subject of white genocide Ramapahosa tried to divert this to others around him namely the two golfers in Ernie Els and Retief Goosen plus businessman Johan Rupert. They were not originally invited as part of the delegation and had asked Trump for an invite. Rupert knows Trump very well from the 1970's when he lived in New York and have remained in touch. Trump loving golf knows the two professionals very well and kind of idolizes them. If these three were not there then this would have been far worse for the SA delegation as they did not offer any information and remained silent.
Goosen did not pander to the narrative and told it as it was and that farm murders are a genuine thing and it has been a problem for many years. Ramaphosa was feeling very uncomfortable as he was definitely in an uncomfortable position. Trump asked Ramaphosa why the likes of Maleema who with his political party at their rallies sing the song "kill the boer" or "kill the farmer" have not been arrested for instigating violence. Ramaphosa blamed the constitution and freedom of speech which was a sell out and shows he has no back bone. We all know if someone instigates violence then they should be dealt with even if it was an old freedom fighters song from apartheid days. There is no place for this type of behavior in todays society and everyone knows this including Maleema.
I know certain farms where they have serious security like ex military and in some cases mercenaries employed because they have to have this. This is serious and farm attacks are real and not just a made up story. Farmers are a different breed when it comes to protecting their land and the ones being picked off are the soft targets. This is a war that is going on that is not being reported on and the way they are being killed shows it is a hate murder and not just a murder. This is the difference and you cannot argue against this.
Ramaphosa kept trying to move away from the uncomfortable topics instead of addressing and discussing the issue at hand and the word trade was raised a number of times. Trade to help booster the economy to reduce unemployment which reduces the crime. Sounds like an easy fix so why does SA poke the bear by linking up with, China, Russia and Iran as it's closest allies yet relies on the US for help?
The US has a reported 600 companies operating in SA employing roughly 500K workers and why the SA delegation was receiving a good slapping. I am sure behind closed doors it was more of a hiding than a few slaps and why we can expect some good to come from this. Common sense tells you if you fix the political corruption which is estimated at $26 million per day being stolen then the economy and unemployment would fix itself.
I have listened to podcasts from other sources that the BEE being forced on all companies which is a black driven DEI is off the table for all 600 US companies. If this is not agreed upon the companies will pull out and SA's economy will collapse very quickly. SA will receive help from the US and new trade deals will progress if this is accepted.
The AGOA deal which was also raised will not be renewed as we know it which was like a duty free trade deal between Southern African countries and the US. The problem is the relationship is not strong especially with the ANC having a strong Islamist influence of late which has created many problems. Iran funding the ICJ case which SA put in motion against Israel would have also been discussed behind closed doors and was never seen as a smart political move. Imagine your country having close ties with Iran as one of your allies.
Starlink will suddenly be available in SA maybe not this year, but certainly next year and I doubt there will be a need for the BEE partners. This is basically companies having to offer 33% to local black partners otherwise they cannot operate in SA and the hope is this meeting will see that way of thinking disappear very quickly. This is a type of theft forcing companies to give away a huge percentage of their value right from the offset and it will always be a political member benefitting and not a normal citizen in SA.
What I found distasteful was the reactions by many when the farmer genocide video was played and how some of the delegation were smiling throughout. The media in the room also did not ask questions around this and avoided this subject. The media has it's own narrative at the moment and it is definitely not about reporting the real news.
We will know very soon how successful or unsuccessful this SA delegation was and I am not holding my breath due to Ramaphose being such a weak spineless character. Unfortunately SA needs someone who is smart and is a genuine leader to fix this and he has none of those traits. SA being obsessed on trade not understanding they need to fix the other things first before that can happen is my biggest concern.