Trump was right to snub Johannesburg’s G20 summit

The rule of the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa since 1994 has been marked by a widening chasm between poor black people, the majority and a tiny black elite, who get richer and richer. A quarter of our children are so badly malnourished that their brains are stunted for life. Amid this terrible hunger, President Cyril Ramaphosa lives in fabulous splendor. He is said to be worth 6 billion rand (around $350 million). He has mansions in the rich parts of South Africa. He has a fleet of luxury cars. He owns a game farm of 11,120 acres. Yet before the G20 meeting of international leaders in Johannesburg, he wrote in his newsletter, “Inequality is one of the most pressing global issues of our time.” 

This G20, purported to promote international cooperation and economic growth, was rescued from being the usual instantly forgettable fest of posture and pontification by President Trump, who by snubbing it turned it into a resounding success. This gave Ramaphosa a huge boost within the mainstream media, who made it seem as if he had told Trump to go to hell – when all he actually said was that Trump’s absence was “regrettable.”

Trump has done good, bad and mad things; he acts on impulse, without thinking. He is profoundly ignorant about South Africa. He boycotted G20 because he says “bad things” are happening here, which is true but they are not the things he cites. There is no “white genocide” in South Africa. White farmers are murdered at a higher rate than the population at large, often horribly, and Ramaphosa did lie outright in 2018 when he told Bloomberg media, “There are no killings of farmers or white farmers in South Africa” – at the time, the South African police had reported 1,700 such murders. But this is not genocide. 

No doubt Joseph Stiglitz, who attended G20, nodded his head in agreement with Ramaphosa’s condemnation of inequality. But Ramaphosa’s record and the state of South Africa under his presidency reveal that he is not as concerned with inequality as he proclaims, and has in fact expanded the gulf between the rich and the poor.

Ramaphosa has passed laws that have stifled the economy and caused massive inequality. Like the rest of the ANC, he hates the West and cheers its enemies but still expects its favors. Posing as a moderate, he has promoted the “National Democratic Revolution”: the foundation of ANC ideology, which wants to turn South Africa into a communist state. He passed the Expropriation Act, which allows the state to confiscate without compensation any property provided that it “is in the public interest.” He has presided over the country’s highest unemployment and lowest economic growth. But he is admired by many world leaders. He is charming and personable; he has a beaming smile, and speaks with soft reasonableness.

A central plank of ANC policy is BEE, which in name is “Black Economic Empowerment” but in practice is “Black Elite Enrichment.” BEE has done great harm to poor black people. Ramaphosa, himself enormously enriched by BEE, states, “BEE is here to stay!” The Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment plant, north of Pretoria, was failing, sending contaminated water to black residents. In the past, a competent contractor would have repaired the plant at the lowest cost. Instead, in 2019, a BEE contractor, Edwin Sodi, was appointed for 295 million rand. Sodi had no competence for this but was an “ANC benefactor.” He didn’t try to repair the plant. He donated some of the money to the ANC and spent the rest on luxuries for himself, Ferraris, mansion improvements, gifts for girlfriends and so on. Contamination worsened. Over 20 black people died of cholera.  

The record of all ANC presidents except Mandela on international human rights is deplorable. They applaud African tyrants such as Mnangagwa in Zimbabwe who slaughter black people. Ramaphosa is the worst. After the atrocity in Israel on October 7, 2023, many in the ANC cheered loudly for Hamas. When Israel finally retaliated, the ANC charged her with “genocide” at the International Court of Justice, with Ramaphosa posing as a brave hero. Whatever you think of Israel’s action in Gaza, it is not genocide – no more than what Trump calls South Africa’s “white genocide.” But real genocide against black Africans is happening right now, in Sudan, with the full approval of Ramaphosa and the ANC. 

In 2015, Omar al-Bashir, then Sudanese leader, visited South Africa. He had presided over the genocide of about 300,000 black Africans by Jihadist Arabs. It was the world’s worse humanitarian crisis – and still is. Bashir was warmly welcomed by the ANC. The International Criminal Court asked the ANC to arrest him. They declined. Bashir was later overthrown by other Jihadist Arabs, who broke out in civil war against each other, laying waste to the country, starving millions, continuing the genocide. The worst killer was Mohamed Dagalo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces. In January 2024, he visited President Ramaphosa at his official residence in Pretoria. Ramaphosa greeted him warmly, gave him his big smile, practically groveled before him and called him “Your Excellency,” even though he had not taken power. He posed for a happy picture with him, holding his hand. 

The once great city of Johannesburg is disintegrating under ANC misrule. Water, sanitation, electricity and roads are crumbling away. Those parts that the G20 leaders would see were hastily spruced up. Now the leaders have departed, celebrating a marvelous G20 and saluting Cyril Ramaphosa as a great African hero who defied Donald Trump.