South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s diplomatic skills stood in sharp contrast to US President Donald Trump’s choreographed offensive during their White House meeting, the journalist Sam Mkokeli wrote in a Semafor column.
“Ramaphosa didn’t just hold his ground. He reminded the world — and perhaps his own party — that in an era of noise and populism, restraint is a kind of power,” Mkokeli argued.
The president has two strategic options to address the influence of Pretoria-born tech billionaire Elon Musk, a key Trump ally who informs the US president’s rhetorical attacks: One is to wholly dismantle the Musk-backed “genocide myth” against South Africa’s Afrikaner minority. The other is to draw Musk’s Starlink into the country as an investor, not just a service provider, to create jobs, infrastructure, and partnerships. That “would be a symbolic coup,” Mkokeli said.
Read on for how Ramaphosa sidestepped Trump, and what he must do next. →
