By Phakamisa Mayaba
If Donald Trump’s ‘orchestrated show for the cameras’ was meant to poke Cyril Ramaphosa in the eye, the SA leader didn’t kick up his chair. Not so much as a shit-eating grin at what has been broadly called an ‘ambush’ by the media. And if there ever was a moment that a Buffalo might show his horns when he’s cornered, here it was, 21 May, in the Oval Office, Uncle Sam’s jaw but a left hook away, a harai goshi at Johann Rupert, the local poster boy of white monopoly capital, if he wanted to make his point. Ramaphosa was hardly four steps away, two if he leaped over the couch. A moment to shut up anybody who’d ever called him Frogboiler, Squirrel or Cupcake.
Video of Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to Washington. Source: YouTube.
There’s a fringe who were squirming for it. A Mugabe-like moment – Ramaphosa telling Trump to leave South Africa alone to his face, maybe throw a tantrum. Perhaps then The Buffalo could finally show that he was the bull of Azania, not some pushover or a lackey of big money and Western interests.
But not even Elon Musk’s icy, pointed stare was going to make Ramaphosa lose his famous decorum, not even as his name was already being dragged through the mud across alternative media before he’d showed up for the appointment. This time, though, it wasn’t Ernst Roets or Afriforum; one hardly saw any of these instigators of the genocide talk, buried as they likely were under a sea of more prominent global platforms.
Instead it was big money talking, in the form of SA billionaire Rob Hersov, granted carte blanche on the hugely popular Patrick Bet-David Podcast on the eve of Ramaphosa’s visit to the dragon’s lair. Hersov clearly has it in for Ramaphosa as a ‘dreadful’ and cowardly president. Despite data indicating that the country’s crime problem is not generally motivated by race but by money, Hersov was hell-bent on dredging up a cunning angle not only for supposed farm murders but also for ‘decentralised’ Cape Exit-type of justifications.
Despite referring to himself as a libertarian, one couldn’t miss the fact that his views are steeped in sentiments of pro-segregation and separate development — that is to say, he obviously daydreams about the platitudes of his time in the SA National Defence Force, the apex institution of the apartheid jackboot. Where others of his generation would rather not mention their conscription stint in that army, Hersov seems rather proud of having served his country.
Billionaire Rob Hersov on the PBD Podcast. Source: YouTube.
In his walk through the multi-lingual, multi-racial South Africa of his fantasies, it would be best for Zulus to conduct their own business, ditto whites and the remaining tribes. How this would be achieved when the big metros are cultural melting pots, one isn’t entirely sure.
But one gathers that, by Hersov’s estimation, the Western Cape should be earmarked for whites who, according to him, arrived at an unpopulated Cape in 1652. I wonder what the KhoiSan and historians would make of this exceptional rendition of history. Conveniently, although the host, Bet-David, is a stickler for impromptu fact-checking, this particular revelation appears to have gone over his head.
While many were watching with bated breath as to how Trump would treat our president, Hersov was counting on a public embarrassment. ‘A Zelensky times ten treatment’, he openly said, adding that ‘Donald J. Trump is going to punish South Africa for this anti-American and anti-Semitic and anti-white policies’. After all, what choice did the US’s First Citizen have but to punish the ANC for its Iran-sponsored ICJ case against Israel, its open support of Hamas, and stealing and bleeding South Africa dry. That is, he so beautifully reiterated every single trope and talking point over the braai from the conservative white right. But that’s not where the story ends — a few days later, there he was, rehashing the narrative on yet another top-tier platform, the Rubin Report.x
Rob Hersov continues his gospel on the Rubin Report. Source: YouTube.
Hersov saunters on his merry way, spreading the gospel according to Robert, which also landed him on Newsmax, described by Wikipedia as an American cable news and digital media company ‘known for its conservative and right-wing political commentary’. Although the commentary on PBD as well as Rubin were pretty evenly divided, the Newsmax audience were openly appreciative of Hersov’s evangelism, with a few even urging him to stand for president.
Of course, on the other side of the divide, many were wondering which parallel universe this extremely privileged guy was from, spitting as he was on a country that ensured vast wealth to him and his forebears. For one, his history lessons were less than dishonest, his points brimming with propaganda, and his hosts mostly lapping it all up.
The darker opinionistas were never going to let him get away with it. In no time, consensus swelled that Hersov was from a fringe of whiteness that’s tired of – or was never really into the integration of — singing Kumbaya around the bonfire. They want autonomy, probably in the Western Cape where blacks from elsewhere have been labelled as refugees or migrants in the land of their ancestors.
Sure, the commentors agreed, the Bantu migrated from the North of Africa, but they were here centuries before the Dutch or British settlers. Also settlers, but we were here first. Penuel Mlotshwa, the podcaster who admits to knowing Hersov personally, also took swipes at him. In as far as numbers go, this is small fry compared to the audiences Hersov reached, but in SA and amongst the black middle class, it’s nothing to be sneezed at.
Penuel Mlotshwa’s response to Rob Hersov’s US interviews. Source: YouTube.
As for Ramaphosa’s meeting with POTUS, it’s clear that there wasn’t much time for dress rehearsals. No rehashing of what members of the delegation would say. Retief Goosen seemed like a reluctant student who was speaking about the possible existence of the genocide he was there to dispel. Ernie Els was just going through the motions. Johann Rupert turned up for Ramaphosa, likewise John Steenhuisen, but it was – expectedly – COSATU’s Zingiswa Losi who impressed the other side of the divide, namely the black left.
Again, the White House, social media agreed, was the battleground for the old South African problems. The Palestine issue was broken down as whites whose own colonial, imperialist history meant they mainly sided with Israel, while the previously marginalised had a soft spot for the Gazans.
Although shortly after Ramaphosa’s visit, the government issued a directive for possible changes to the country’s BEE laws so as to clearly accommodate Musk’s Starlink, there’s been pushback within and out of the ANC. Although parties like the DA have been supportive of such proposed changes, those in the ANC have vowed that no laws written in Washington would be snuck in through the back door. The actual Oval Office meeting may now be yesterday’s news, but for those who’ve always sought external assistance for issues of redress, whether via conversation or other means, the battle to gain an audience with geo-political powerhouses has just begun.
This is an edited version of an article that first appeared on Phakamisa Mayaba’s website, eParkeni. Used with permission.