History is strewn thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill, but a lie, well told, is immortal.
–Mark Twain
By now, the undeniable trap, reminiscent of the encounter with Volodymr Zelensky, set by US President Donald Trump and his goons for the meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the White House Oval Office is old news. People everywhere are, however, still talking about it, but more importantly, many are debunking some of the outrageous lies that Trump tried to pass off as fact.
The South African delegation was clearly prepared for an ambush, and amusingly, Trump unwittingly wound up being the victim of a reverse bushwhack instead. Ramaphosa and many well-wishers in South Africa knew he was in for the kind of demeaning rebuke suffered by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky not long ago.
So, instead of taking the proverbial knife to a gunfight, Ramaphosa employed a sneaky strategy to compliment Trump’s well-known racist tendencies. He brought some White friends to tame the black hearts defiling the Oval Office.
Political commentators, including myself, who watched the proceedings, are convinced that Trump was enamoured by the White members of Ramaphosa’s delegation, namely two professional golfers, a billionaire businessman and a Minister in his cabinet. That level of uncharacteristic attention was not conferred on Ramaphosa, who, in truth, did not speak much.
When Ramaphosa did speak, he was diplomatically effective, yet did manage to slip in the hilariously sarcastic remark about not having an aeroplane to gift to Trump. This barb, of course, went completely over Trump’s infantile head.
The evidence that Trump’s manifestly incompetent cronies cobbled together to bolster the absurd lie about a White genocide and land seizures happening in South Africa failed to impress the rational world. Clearly, Trump had not previously examined the printed evidence he brandished with such conviction before the attendant press. Subsequently, critical parts of the video and printed evidence were fact-checked and unceremoniously debunked by media outlets like France 24.
As has become customary now with all of Trump’s chronically embarrassing episodes, it was left to his sycophantic yet annoyingly enthusiastic press secretary Karoline Leavitt to attempt to spin, deflect or lie her way clear. For once, at least, a journalist in the White House Press Office persisted in following a line of questioning about Trump’s lies that has recently become rare. Leavitt, with a now familiar rudeness, dismissed her when it became clear that her usual lies and deflection were not cutting it.
The lies about White genocide and land seizures seem to have become such an obsession with Trump that it caused him to create a racist policy that favours White immigrants into America. Whether the lies were planted in his ear by racist extremist groups from South Africa or by Elon Musk, who is scrambling to secure contracts to install his Starlink satellite service in the country, is inconsequential.
It’s clear, to me, at least, that Trump (and his corrupt advisors) are very aware that they’re lies but are just disseminating them to energise his gullible MAGA support base. This, to me, is more consequential as the lies will live, mutate, and animate a clearly irrational segment of the population. Like all cult members, the MAGA faithful lack self-awareness of their indoctrination and hypocrisy, but disturbingly have the power to install presidents.
The lies about genocide and land expropriation need to be addressed. While there have been some attempts during the attempted Oval Office ambush and afterwards, they require further clarification and rectification.
The South African delegation admitted that violent crime is rampant in the country. This is absolutely true. It’s comparable to some war-torn areas of the African continent. Still, as a resident citizen, I can confirm that there definitely isn’t a systematic agenda by Black people to target White people for extermination, unlike what Israel is doing to Palestinians.
I have personally been the victim of three carjackings (all company vehicles, fortunately), two burglaries, in which I lost practically all of my possessions, and a mugging. If anyone should be traumatised and angry about crime, it should be me. As a matter of fact, I was furious and resentful for a long while. I even tried to emigrate to America around the time the internet bubble burst, disintegrating my job offer.
It took years to understand the fundamental reasons why South Africa has so much violent crime, and empathise with the Black population who were not only the primary victims, but who were principally blamed. Apartheid was brutal, and it left a brutalised population. Even though it ended just over thirty years ago, its effects and dehumanising legacy are still strongly evident
The democratically inclusive government that replaced the apartheid regime inherited what is today still regarded as one of the most unequal societies in the world. Economic prosperity still eludes the Black population. Wealth is concentrated in the hands of the former oppressors, who still own up to 73% of total agricultural land.
When attempts to address the disparities through fair compensation for land redistribution largely failed, the government initiated a policy to expropriate certain types of land for redistribution. The original fair compensation policy is still very much in effect and enshrined in the country’s constitution.
There is no land confiscation in progress in South Africa, nor has there ever been, except by colonisers and the former apartheid regime. There is, however, large-scale unemployment, especially among the young, and crushing poverty, which fundamentally affects Black people more than any other race.
South African government policies, similar to the American DEI framework, initiated to address inequality and inequity, have largely been frowned upon by the haves and are doggedly resisted. Worse, the corrupt implementation of these policies has benefited a few well-connected individuals, rather than the demographic it was targeted at.
Given the despair, poverty, restlessness, and unfair treatment of people who have already suffered so much under apartheid, it is reasonable to expect that their dissatisfaction will lead to violence. South Africans are not unique in this regard.
It is, therefore, scandalous that the American government, no doubt ably abetted by disgruntled South Africans who fear losing their ill-got privileges, are attempting to punish the victims of apartheid even further by smearing them with atrocious lies.
lenny unencumbered 