South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said that South Africa has up to nine critical minerals that the United States needs, and he hopes to advance discussions on bilateral trade deals with Donald Trump in Washington.
Ramaphosa said on Wednesday that South Africa and the United States would discuss the issue of critical minerals – after a first meeting with Trump that turned into a confrontation over the situation of white farmers in South Africa.
Ramaphosa has included two popular white South African golfers in his delegation on the visit to the US, as well as his agriculture minister, John Steenhuisen – who is a key member of his coalition with the Democratic Alliance (DA), as well as a white South African.
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The delegation is keen to open discussions on trade deals, notably on minerals, Claude de Baissac, director of geopolitical analysis company Eunomix told RFI on Thursday.
"South Africa cannot afford to alienate the US as a commercial partner," he added, pointing out that the former's economy has been struggling for the past 15 years and the US remains its second-biggest trading partner.
"[In South Africa] the business population, the business world, is still essentially in the hands of whites," Baissac continued. "So there is still real economic apartheid. And its financing, businesses, trade, exchanges are mainly with Western countries – the European Union and the United States."
'Surreal' attack
The South African president arrived prepared for an aggressive reception given Trump's actions in recent months.
The US president has cancelled aid to South Africa, offered political refuge to white minority Afrikaners, expelled South Africa's ambassador to the US and criticised the genocide charge Pretoria has brought against US ally Israel.
Throughout their meeting on Wednesday, Trump wanted only to discuss the treatment of white South Africans, playing a video and leafing through articles that he said proved his allegations.
"[Ramaphosa] didn't do too badly though," Baissac told RFI. "Everyone knew there would be an ambush. It took a somewhat surreal form but overall, from an objective point of view, knowing that there were indeed going to be fireworks, I think the South African team did better than we could have feared and perhaps less than we could have dared to hope."
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The South African president is surrounded by a team that represents the paradox, and the richness, of the country South Africa is today, Baissac said, citing the example of Steenhuisen, "who testified that there is no white or Afrikaner or farmers' genocide in South Africa".
"What for me was absolutely fascinating was Ramaphosa's restraint," he added. "That didn't surprise me because he is someone who played a decisive role in the end of apartheid, and this is not his first confrontation with leaders. But it helped."
'A pointless exercise'
Meanwhile, at home, South Africans on Thursday expressed dismay at how Trump's false claims of a white genocide had dominated the conversation.
"He didn’t get Zelenskyed," Daily Maverick columnist Rebecca Davis, who is white South African, wrote in an opinion piece – in reference to a meeting at the White House in February at which Trump and Vice President JD Vance attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling him "ungrateful"for US military aid.
Zelensky heatedly defended himself, which served to further alienate the Americans.
In contrast, Davis added, Ramaphosa "did not get personally insulted by the world’s most horrible duo of playground bullies".
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Foreign ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri also praised Ramaphosa's handling of the encounter, saying it was important that the two leaders engaged.
"It's not in [Ramaphosa's] nature to be combative. [He] looks at issues calmly, matter-of-factly. I think that's what we expect of our presidents," he told new agency Reuters.
But others wondered if the South African president's trip to Washington was worth the trouble.
"I don't think it was the right call. I don't think we need to explain ourselves to the USA," Sobelo Motha, a 40-year-old member of a trade union, told Reuters on the streets of Johannesburg. "We know there's no white genocide. So for me, it was pointless exercise."
(with newswires)
