EDITORIAL: A refreshing Oval Office moment of real unity

President Cyril Ramaphosa was never going to win the argument about whether there is genocide against whites in South Africa, targeting Afrikaner farmers in particular. US President Donald Trump is as rational as a great white shark. Facts mean nothing to him. Ramaphosa was being asked to stop something that isn’t happening.

The meeting in the White House last week had the air of a one-off “reality” TV show — and not a good one. These shows have nothing to do with reality. They are elaborately contrived to create personal humiliation — every week somebody gets rejected. Ramaphosa was indeed ambushed, but he refused to be humiliated and was not rejected.

In boxing terms, Ramaphosa was never going to score a knockout. But the transcript of the meeting, shorn of visual theatrics, reveals that he consistently scored points with cool and articulate rebuttals of the Trump narrative. In this he had the support of good seconds in his corner, particularly DA leader and agriculture minister John Steenhuisen and billionaire Johann Rupert. Trump, by contrast, was making wild swings, rambling and incoherent, his remarks glittering with non sequiturs and pure ignorance.

There were some bizarre moments. Golfer Ernie Els: “We’ve got a great ally if we can have the US. It’s always been an ally of South Africa for a very long time, even in the days of the war up in Angola.” Not quite, Ernie. And Rupert: “The crime is terrible, sir, but Mr Steenhuisen [pointing to him] won’t admit to it, but he runs the Western Cape where I live. And the biggest murder rate is in the Cape Flats. Gangs.” These comments were awkward, but ultimately harmless.

The great irony of the meeting was that Trump ignored a basic military tactic and did not attack Ramaphosa on the issues where the South African government is weakest: crime in general and unemployment, both of which are related to bad ANC policies and governance.

There are valid criticisms to be made about BEE legislation that drives out skills and discourages foreign investment; about a dismal lack of action against state corruption; and about the destruction of state-owned companies such as Eskom and Transnet. And the ANC has its own fantasies that have nothing to do with reality, including the National Health Insurance scheme — a baby seal waiting to be clubbed.

Yet Trump took none of these opportunities. He scored a cheap reality TV ambush, but in debating terms it was a colossal blunder by him and his team, because his core argument on the day was easily refuted.

Ironically, Trump may well have done South Africa some good. Bringing two golfers to the meeting, as he apparently requested Ramaphosa to do, was unorthodox and disarmed him to some extent. But the real significance for domestic politics was that Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen, leaders of the two major parties in the GNU, were in the Oval Office on the same side. Steenhuisen said: “After 30 years of us exchanging barbs across the floor in parliament and trying to get one over on each other, we’ve decided to join hands precisely to keep that lot [the MK Party and EFF] out of government.”

Is it too much to hope that the united front witnessed by tens of millions can be translated into greater mutual trust in the workings of the GNU?