A week and half after the Rumble in the Oval Office, it is still worth saying that we should be grateful for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership at this tough time. His numerous detractors can bang on as much as they like; the man was cool as a cucumber under the terrible attack of falsehoods by US President Donald Trump.
We have Ramaphosa and billionaire businessman Johann Rupert to thank for speaking sense in what was a depressingly unserious and unhinged meeting. Listening to the leader of the free world freewheel through a series of lies left you questioning where humanity was headed.
Given that the information used by Trump is so weak, and so profoundly and dangerously untrue, you have to wonder what they are saying about him in the Kremlin. The world is in trouble.
As I have argued elsewhere, at least South Africa managed to shame Trump into some concessions: he is open to a gas and minerals deal; he will be happy with the arrangement South Africa is making for his close buddy Elon Musk’s Starlink; and he sounded like he won’t be making more wild and ill-informed allegations about the fictional “white genocide” that Musk has fed him.
Surprisingly, Trump seemed unbothered about South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, and said instead that the matter will meander through the process and there will be a judgment.
For the South Africans who went to Washington expecting to be lashed for this action, it was a “blow me down” moment. And confirmation by Ramaphosa that Trump has agreed to participate in the G20 summit will underline the positives of the visit.
Crime must be eradicated. If it isn’t, people like Trump will find a reason to use it against South Africa
And so, for South Africa, this was not the doomsday visit the government — and many observers — had thought it would be. South Africa can be proud of its representatives.
That underlines how important it is for the country not to do what it is extremely good at: resting on its laurels. We are big on celebrating pyrrhic victories; not so much on exploiting opportunities and implementing programmes.
It is ironic for me that, as Ramaphosa was pushing back against Trump, finance minister Enoch Godongwana had just delivered his third budget in three months. Godongwana and his team should be glad that South Africans were so focused on the meeting in the White House, because our country is not in a good place economically. Growth is now projected at a measly 1.4%, down from the previously projected 1.9%. Debt will stabilise at 77.4% of GDP this year. Here’s the real problem: we spend 22c of every rand we collect on debt service costs, a staggering R1.35-trillion over the next three years.
Our finances can be fixed, though. It is the culture that needs real, serious work by leaders: we have to do more to create jobs.
We are being called genocidaires because we have allowed crime to soar to unimaginable levels in South Africa. Criminal behaviour is now being called a genocide — and the world will start believing this, because we are failing to stop crime. We must not shy away from the fact that it is government failure that has brought us here. Crime must be eradicated. If it isn’t, people like Trump will find a reason to use it against South Africa.
Crucially, these minor triumphs in the White House can only be meaningful if we win the real battle in South Africa: jobs, jobs, jobs. The latest unemployment figures are so shocking that the president should be ashamed to show his face in public knowing that half the people of his country is without jobs.
South Africa can withstand the assault against it by winning at the things it can do. We need to be creating jobs. We need to be building roads, railways, schools, dams and other infrastructure. We need hotels and factories that employ our people.
If South Africa does not win at this level — creating jobs — it will continue having to go to countries like the US as a supplicant and not an equal.
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