South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa not to compromise when he meets with his US counterpart Donald Trump.
Ramaphosa is scheduled to be in the White House next wednesday and the EFF has warned he will probably be ridiculed and embarrassed like Ukraine President Voladimir Zelensky who was scolded during a televised appearance by Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
The party argues no amount of explanation or reasoning could sway the Trump administration which has elected to promote the narrative of a white genocide in South Africa despite evidence to the contrary.
“It was made patently clear by Donald Trump in an address to the media on the 12th of May 2025 that the sole intention of the visit by South Africa would be for our nation’s leaders to account regarding a non-existent genocide of Afrikaners in our country. Cyril Ramaphosa is therefore poised to be embarrassed and shamed by an illiterate imperialist and bully, the same way Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in recent months,” said the EFF in a statement released by National Spokesperson Thembi Msane.
The perceived persecution of white South Africans, South Africa’s International Criminal Court case against Israel and the war in Ukraine are among the issues to be discussed by the two leaders.
The meeting comes on the back of several eyebrow-raising decisions by Trump including expelling Ambassador Ibrahim Rasool, withdrawing aid and offering refugee status to Afrikaners falsely claiming to be fleeing the non existent genocide.
Msane said the EFF expects Trump to try and push for South Africa to halt its transformation agenda along with its support for Palestine.
“The EFF wants to make it categorically clear that the Trump administration has no intention of listening to facts or reality as it relates to the transformation agenda in South Africa or the treatment of Afrikaner people. The disinformation around a genocide in South Africa and the terrible treatment of white minorities is nothing but a useful tool in the hands of a short-sighted white supremacist, whose sole intention is to undermine South Africa’s moral standing in defence of the genocidal Israeli State,” she said.
Msane said Ramaphosa must not budge on either of the issues also stating that the President does not even have the authority to renegotiate the country’s transformation agenda as that responsibility, she argued, rests with parliament.
“South Africa does not owe Donald Trump or the U.S. government an explanation for our legislative agenda. As the EFF we urge Cyril Ramaphosa ,as he approaches inevitable embarrassment, to reaffirm the legitimacy and moral clarity of our constitutional call for land expropriation without compensation, a historical corrective and central pillar of genuine economic freedom even in its limited expression through the Expropriation Bill.
“Ramaphosa must remain firm on our laws, such as the recently passed Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act, and the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act, which represent a necessary break with a racist colonial past and racist separate development in education and healthcare. We remind President Ramaphosa that he has no mandate to renegotiate these laws with foreign powers, and he has no mandate to make assurances that these pieces of legislation will be reconsidered as such powers lie in the hands of the Parliament of South Africa. These laws were not drafted for approval in Washington, but they are expressions of the democratic will of our people,” said Msane.
The US continues to fund Israel’s military activities despite clear evidence that the Zionist state is carrying out a genocide against the people of Palestine and has sought to punish as well as to isolate perceived sympathisers of the Palestinian resistance.
“Furthermore, we urge Ramaphosa to reaffirm that South Africa’s position on Israel’s genocide against the people of Palestine is morally just, legally sound, and consistent with international humanitarian law. The EFF reminds the nation that the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and closure of the embassy is a resolution of the Sixth Parliament, and it remains binding on the state. No foreign threat or economic coercion must derail South Africa’s principled stance on Palestine.”
“The sudden aggression from right-wing American voices is not about human rights or concern for Afrikaners, it is an orchestrated campaign of disinformation, painting South Africa as a site of “white genocide” in order to undermine our moral standing and international credibility. This is straight from the U.S. imperialist playbook: the same propaganda used to isolate and destabilise any nation that resists Western domination, dares to challenge apartheid Israel, or begins to chart an independent development path,” said the EFF.