Cyril Ramaphosa pushes back against Trump claim of Afrikaner "genocide"

President Donald Trump has hosted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on Wednesday for a meeting that was somewhat tense despite the jokes and attempts by Ramaphosa to defuse the situation after Trump accused the country’s government of allowing a “genocide” to take place against white Afrikaner farmers, a label that even many of those farmers reject.

Ramaphosa pushed for the meeting with Trump in an attempt to salvage his country’s relationship with the United States, which is at its lowest point since the end of the apartheid system of racial segregation in 1994.

After a reporter asked about allegations that white people are suffering a genocide, Ramaphosa noted that some members of his administration are Afrikaners. "If there was an Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you these three gentlemen would not be here," he said, referring notably to agriculture minister John Henry Steenhuisen.

Trump was however not satisfied, saying there had been reports and documentaries about the issue. He directed his staff to turn down the lights in the Oval Office and play a video on a television that was wheeled into the room. "It's a terrible sight," Trump said. "I've never seen anything like it."

The video showed clips of a radical minority party leader singing the anti-apartheid song "Shoot the Boer", from which the government has distanced itself.

Following the confrontation in the Oval Office, Ramaphosa joined Trump for lunch before leaving the White House.

Asked about the meeting after his departure, the South African president noted that he thought it had gone "very well".