By Nosmot Gbadamos / Africa Brief
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is due to meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday in an attempt to mend bilateral relations, which have deteriorated in recent months as Trump has parroted claims that white South Africans are facing “unjust racial discrimination” and “genocide.”
This is the first time that Trump will host an African leader in his second term. At the meeting, Ramaphosa is expected to propose a comprehensive trade deal as a way to reset the U.S.-South Africa relationship.
Since he took office in January, Trump has cut aid to South Africa, expelled its ambassador, signalled plans to boycott the G-20 summit in Johannesburg in November, and reportedly banned U.S. agencies from working on the summit. Trump also announced a 31 percent tariff on South African imports as part of his recent tariffs scheme.
Last week, tensions worsened as Washington granted refugee status to 59 white South Africans—a move that Pretoria said was “entirely politically motivated and designed to question South Africa’s constitutional democracy.”
Trump’s main grievance is South Africa’s new Expropriation Act, aimed at redressing apartheid-era land inequality, which allows Pretoria to seize property in limited circumstances. (No land has been expropriated under the law yet.) Since his first term, Trump has also repeatedly claimed without evidence that white South African farmers are victims of targeted killings and discrimination.
Pretoria’s broader diversity laws are also in the firing line as the Trump administration attacks diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at home and abroad. Trump’s billionaire advisor Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, has been a vocal critic of Pretoria’s policies, which he has called “openly racist.”
But Trump’s stance against Pretoria is not just about its domestic politics. He has also criticized South Africa’s relationship with Iran and its position on Israel’s war in Gaza. Trump’s February executive order on South Africa cites “aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements.”
Ramaphosa is expected to challenge Trump’s understanding of the treatment of Afrikaners, the descendants of mostly Dutch settlers, in South Africa. Pretoria’s delegation to the White House includes John Steenhuisen, the agriculture minister and leader of the majority-white Democratic Alliance party, who will likely help dispute the White House’s false claims of white genocide.
“There is no genocide in South Africa,” Steenhuisen said last week. “What we need to do is to make sure that when important trading partners like the U.S. are making decisions around their outlook … they are making it based on the facts and not the fiction.”
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There are fears among the South African public and politicians that Ramaphosa may be humiliated like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose meeting with Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance at the White House in February descended into a shouting match.
Yet Ramaphosa is reportedly unfazed and hopes to placate Trump with business opportunities, including by making concessions on sectors such as critical minerals and agriculture. South Africa is the United States’ largest African trading partner; in 2024, bilateral trade totalled around $20.5 billion.
“We will be conducting our discussions in a business-like manner,” Ramaphosa told reporters on Friday. “We are not going to be distracted by anything. We will just focus on what is important to our country. … You also negotiate with those that you may have differences with.”
Ramaphosa may try to charm Trump by reextending an invitation to play on South Africa’s golf courses.
While he’s in Washington, Ramaphosa is also expected to bring up business opportunities for Musk, which could include a proposal for Tesla to receive favourable tariffs on imports to South Africa. He reportedly plans to offer Musk a workaround of Black-ownership laws so that Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet business, can enter the South African market.
