Hope after ‘ambush’ and ‘shaking’ in the White House

Let’s hope and pray that good comes out of the Trump-Ramaphosa meeting yesterday. In my prayers ahead of the showdown I was mindful that President Donald Trump has been moving closer to God and that his improbable White House comeback through a gauntlet of state-orchestrated lawfare, two assasination attempts and extreme mainstream media bias, lent credibility to prophecies that God wanted him to serve two terms.

I also thought about how President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was an on-fire student Christian leader in the early 70s has drifted into alliances with persecutors of Christians, enemies of Israel and woke globalists. “Lord, may Trump who once was far from you, yield more to You. And may Ramaphosa who was once close to you, encounter You afresh. Lord of miracles, won’t you work in both their hearts and use their meeting for Your great purposes.”

The Trump “ambush” of the livestreamed Oval Office meeting in which he made Ramaphosa watch a video which he said confirmed genocide of white farmers in SA, made headlines. And many commentators rightly noted that the video grossly misrepresented farm murder statistics and the official position of the SA government. But, on the other hand it showed EFF leader Julius Malema chanting “Kill the boer” in a packed stadium – something that a child could tell you is dangerously inflammatory despite Ramaphosa’s freedom-of-speech defence and our apex court’s view that the song is not hate speech but a cultural expression. Such reckless unaccountability, together with the dismal arrest and prosecution rate for farm murders and attacks does contribute towards a real sense of fear and abandonment in SA’s vital farming community and explains why some would jump at the opportunity to be welcomed as refugees in the US.

Ramaphosa, who said at the outset of the meeting that his goal was to mend relations with the US and pursue trade and investment opportunities, did well to remain calm under fire from Trump during his very public rebuke of the SA government. But, on the other hand, much of the blame for the diplomatic crisis between SA and the US rests on his shoulders. He has presided over repeated blatant provocations of the US and the signing off of investor-unfriendly legislation, including the right for the state to expropriate property without compensation and BEE laws that have fuelled corruption without significantly uplifting the disadvantaged. These laws exacerbate the dire economic conditions which he told Trump are behind the rampant criminal violence in SA that results in the killing of far too many citizens, including white farmers. Some of his actions guaranteed to rile the US included sending anti-Trump, Islamist-tied Ebrahim Rasool to Washington as SA’s ambassador days before Trump’s inauguration; allowing a controversy to drag on in Johannesburg over a proposal to rename the street which is home to the US Consulate after a Palestinian aircraft hijacker; and conducting a baseless, probably Iranian-funded International Court of Justice “genocide” case against US ally Israel.

Details of what transpired during his further meeting with Trump behind closed doors are currently unknown. Ramaphosa didn’t go home with the business guarantees he hoped to secure. But he did say afterwards that their consultation “went very well” and that the two countries agreed to continue engaging over trade and investment issues. 

Let us continue to pray for Ramaphosa and Trump – that Ramaphosa will reflect deeply on what is in the interests of South Africa and have the courage to make decisions and strengthen alliances that may be unpopular with factions within his crumbling party. And that in his future dealings with SA, Trump will take serious note of the input and perspectives of not only Ramaphosa but the South Africans who accompanied him on his US visit, including golfing icons Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, business tycoon Anton Rupert, DA leader John Steenhuisen, and Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi.

The picture of a time of shaking comes up in prophetic words about South Africa, in the context of God’s plans to birth revival. It feels to me that the Ramaphosa-Trump meeting was also a time of shaking to dislodge dead-end political mindsets. But, hopefully, also with revival and reformation-birthing undertones.

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