From wearing a suit and not Ukrainian leisurewear to gifting US President Donald Trump a very heavy book about golf, our President Cyril Ramaphosa showed the world how to engage with an unhinged man who has seemingly unfettered and unchecked power. No wonder the guy is called Cupcake, writes Gasant Abarder in a new #SliceofGasant column.
Analyses and critiques of US President Donald Trump and our President Cyril Ramaphosa’s press conference in the Oval Office was interpreted as a David vs Goliath battle. And true to the Biblical version, it was the chap with the odds stacked against him who triumphed, even though the optics were cringey.
Americans love using the phrase, ‘We don’t negotiate with terrorists.’ Well, our president put a twist to the adage and created his own. Something along the lines of: ‘You don’t go to a gunfight with a crazed megalomaniac with unlimited ammo and power and who is an extreme narcissist to boot.’
What a lot of the analysis missed was what we saw live on all the major news networks last Wednesday was a press conference; nothing more and nothing less than a Trump powerplay for the cameras. But there were hours of negotiations before and after the press conference so it is rather difficult to know how things would proceed if you weren’t a fly on the wall.
The press conference was a rather hard watch. There was that ‘documentary’ of Julius Malema and Jacob Zuma singing Struggle songs (more about that later). Then the mysterious white crosses lining a highway somewhere in South Africa that was apparently a motorcade memorial for murdered farmers.
Trump’s multimedia show and printed articles from such fine publications as the UK tabloid, the Daily Mail, felt like an ambush, didn’t it? Cupcake looked a bit hot under the collar. But when question time came, the US journos were asking the Orange One about a jet that was gifted to him and the case against Israel. They seemingly know he deals in hyperboles. And in true style, he started calling the journalists disgraceful, unqualified and fake news.
The SA contingency was a bit cringey as well, with a lot of ambiguous waffle. Although Ernie Els showing Trump his SA passport was a nice touch. Bringing the two golfers was a masterstroke because Trump loves Ernie and Retief Goosen because he loves golf. Businessman Johan Rupert came with the truth that the farm murders were a part of a crime problem in general in SA and not a targeted campaign against white people. Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen was quick to point out that Malema and Zuma were minority party politicians.
Zingiswa Losi, Cosatu’s first woman president, was probably the most impressive delegate of the lot. Importantly, she offered a deeper understanding of South Africa’s land policy and that it wasn’t a land grab of white farmers’ land.
Ramaphosa – who started with praise for Trump for helping with respirators during our Covid lockdown – brought it back by asking for more investment in SA to create more jobs and thus eradicate crime.
Sidebar: At the weekend, former President Thabo Mbeki contextualised the ‘Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer’ songs. He correctly pointed out that these were Struggle songs that their constituencies knew were a battle cry against the apartheid government and its machinery. The ‘Boer’ or ‘Farmer’ was a metaphor then for the real land who stole land.
But in 2025, why sing that song when we have legislation that seeks to address land inequities, and you’re a whole political leader? Also, Mbeki, who denied hundreds of thousands of people life-saving Aids drugs, isn’t qualified to speak about genocides.
Back to Cupcake: he took one for the team. Team South Africa, that is. President Ramaphosa held his poise under extreme provocation and showed dignity and leadership. Sometimes, in situations like these, it may seem like you’re taking an L. But in the long term, if Trump drops the invective against South Africa and trade improves, we will all be winners. Trump even said the case SA brought against Israel must run its course at the International Court of Justice.
Ramaphosa is no lightweight when it comes to statesmanship. Remember, this is the guy who went fly-fishing with counterpart Roelf Meyer to hammer out a negotiated and peaceful transition for a South African democracy. What he did in the Oval Office was quite deliberate and not a dressing down. It was a masterstroke in diplomacy that we will all benefit from.
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Picture: Reuters
