Can Cyril Ramaphosa enchant Donald Trump?

The South African President was previously presented with difficult challenges – he was the chief negotiator of the African National Congress of Nelson Mandela (ANC) during the talks to end the white minority rule in the early 1990s – but his upcoming meeting in the White House will require all of his charm.

Cyril Ramaphosa wants to repair his nation's broken relationship with the United States – and his famous negotiation skills are put to the test when he tries to win the most powerful leader in the world.

US President Donald Trump and his team were unusually quiet with regard to the trip, and the press spokesman for the White House, Karoline Leavitt, returns on Monday to provide details – or even publicly recognize that the visit takes place.

The South African government referred to it as a “job visit” when the personal meeting between the two guides on Wednesday takes place as a “platform to reset the strategic relationship between the two countries”.

The two have been in loggerheads for months, and Trump repeatedly insisted that the African community of South Africa is exposed to a “genocide” – an assertion that was reinforced by his close consultant Elon Musk, the Tech billionaire born in South Africa.

The voltage rose days after Trump's taking office for his second term in January, when President Ramaphosa signed a controversial law that enabled the government of South Africa to counteract privately property under certain circumstances without compensation if it is considered “just and in the public interest”.

This was only used to affect Africa's image in the eyes of the Trump government – already angered by his genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

In February, the US President announced the suspension of critical help in South Africa and offered to help members of the African community, which are mainly white descendants of former Dutch and French settlers, to settle in the United States as “refugees”.

The South African ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, was also excluded in March after accused Trump of “mobilizing supremacism” and trying to “project white victim as a dog whistle”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Rasool was a “politician of the racing bait” who “is no longer welcoming in our big country”.

The arrival of the first group of Africans in the USA last week lit the situation, whereby Trump was again doubled to his claims that white farmers “brutally killed” and their “land confiscated” – which was repeatedly rejected by the South African government.

According to Anthoni van Nieuwkerk, the South African political analyst, Ramaphosa's decision to go into the White House is a “strategy with high risk”, especially in view of Trump's latest hard attitude.

Ramaphosa's spokesman Vincent Magwenya announced that the trip would “set a process to normalize diplomatic relationships” and “the basis” for improved trade relationships.

Since everything had been confirmed at short notice, the South African delegation, which includes four high -ranking cabinet ministers, had little time to set up a “formal program”, he said.

However, he proposed to concentrate on the expansion of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a 25-year part of the US legislation that guarantees duty-free access to American consumers for certain goods from Africa.

South Africa is one of the largest exporters under Agoa and in 2023 achieved sales of USD 2.7 billion (2 billion GBP), mainly from the sale of vehicles, jewelry and metals.

There are concerns that the deal cannot be renewed if it will be checked later this year or that South Africa can be excluded from the new agreement.

“In the absence of this sequel or expansion of AGOA, we are ready to deal with the Trump administration because of a new trade relationship framework that we believe that it makes each other advantageous,” said Magwenya.

When acidating the relationships between Pretoria and Washington, he said South Africa had hoped to have an “open, constructive discussion about them”.

Interestingly, the agricultural minister John Steenhuisen is part of the delegation. His political party of the democratic alliance is part of the coalition government of South Africa and was a loud critic of the ENC's empowerment policy and said they lead to crony and corruption. The ANC denies this.

Speaking of ICJ, in which South Africa Israel accused of committing genocide against Palestinians living in Gaza in December 2023 – a accusation that Israel denied, Magwenya admitted that it could “lead to a robust discussion”.

“We cannot withdraw this problem [and it] will remain in dispute.

“With regard to the humanitarian crisis and its relief, however, there is agreeing with President Trump and we will concentrate more on what we can do together in the areas in which we agree.”

On Friday, Trump in Gaza recognized the most recent blockade of humanitarian aid to Israel's recent blockage in the area – comments that led to a “basic amount of food” in Gaza.

Prof. van Nieuwerk forecast two likely scenarios – the first sees “pleasant and warm” interaction and reset that South Africa is interested “when there is rational minds and when many homework have been done” on both sides.

But he warns that “emotional minds” should prevail and the focus is on white genocide claims that things could quickly disorder.

“If the South African delegation cannot convince the Trump administration of the right of South Africa to make its own political decisions domestically and internationally … Then Trump's moment of the Oval Office is used to humiliate Ramaphosa and read the Riot Act,” said the academic of the University of South Africa.

“This second scenario is not what we want.”

He hopes that the delegation of South Africa has arrived in the USA with a “tempting proposal” and added: “The negotiations cannot begin in the Oval Office in front of the cameras. This living moment must be the conclusion of a negotiation that should have happened in the past.”

In this regard, South Africa has an ASA's sleeve: Ramaphosa, known for its negotiating skills and its warmth.

He knows which buttons are to be pressed -and finding in common about golf could be the swing that he does -the 72 -year -old has already invited the US leader to a friendly round of Gulf during the G20 summit in South Africa in November.

“Whether people like Cyril Ramaphosa or not, we have to acknowledge that he was one of the most important actors in the transition from apartheid to democracy. He happened because of his personality and style,” said Prof. van Nieuwerk.

Dr. Lubna Nadvi, a political analyst at the South Africa University of Kwazulu-Natal, agrees that the South African President has the personality “to cope with the situation if things get out of control”.

“I assume that this personal meeting will enable the relationship to be strengthened so that facts are put on the table,” she said, adding that the “propaganda” that Trump had had had to be tackled.

It was important that Ramaphosa's team made the United States “accepted that South Africa is a sovereign country and has the right to make the decisions that it wants to make,” said Dr. Nadvi.

Mr. Magwenya also advised that South Africa would not get into the meeting on Wednesday “with a begging bowl”.

“As much as South Africa needs access to one of the largest markets in the world … the United States also need certain products and goods from South Africa.”

South Africa is currently exporting a variety of minerals to the USA, including platinum, iron and manganese as well as gemstones, metals and fruit.

His “geo-strategic location” also made it “attractive” for the USA, added Prof. van Nieuwkerk.

As a painting of a worst case scenario, the analyst said: “There are players who like to see us fail and then get in and … displace our role in Africa. This is the price we pay when we go wrong in the oval office.”

But Mr. Magwenya was in pain to explain that the meeting of the White House was not a “sprint” for a solution.

“What it represents is the beginning of a process to solve the current dead end and to normalize diplomatic relationships,” he said.

“Whether this meeting has a negative or positive result, it will still be a great opportunity for us to normalize the relationship.”

Additional reporting by Bernd Debusmann JR of the BBC in Washington DC.