Overview

• At a Cape Town symposium, President Cyril Ramaphosa brushed off his Oval Office “ambush” and maintained the chant is not a call to violence.
• He cited the Constitutional Court’s 2022 ruling that labeled “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer” a liberation slogan shielded by free expression protections.
• US President Donald Trump accused South Africa of “white genocide,” presented misdated video footage and urged the arrest of EFF leader Julius Malema for incitement.
• The White House has frozen all US aid to South Africa and offered expedited citizenship to white Afrikaners in response to the diplomatic fallout.
• Analysts say the clash is driving Pretoria to explore a US-South Africa natural gas-for-tariff trade deal and rethink its foreign and economic policies.