Billionaire Johann Rupert’s message about South Africa

Billionaire businessman Johann Rupert said that if South Africa’s economy fails to grow, the culture of dependency and lawlessness will grow.

Rupert shared his views during a meeting at the White House, where President Donald Trump hosted President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa was joined by Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi, and International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola.

South African golfing stars Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, and billionaire Johann Rupert joined the president to appeal to Trump’s love for golf.

Trump focused on farm murders in South Africa, highlighting the brutality and devastation it causes to the community.

Rupert told Trump that there are too many murders across South Africa, independent of race and occupation.

He said South Africa needs technology, including Starlink at every police station and drones for surveillance, to fight crime.

“I got drones donated to the peace parks in South Africa to stop poaching. However, the government blocked it because they said the United States are using them for spying,” he said.

He said it was possible to fight crime and make South Africa safer, giving the example of New York in the seventies.

Rupert said all it took was two competent police commissioners and a tough mayor to bring crime in the city under control.

“We need your help to stop this awful killing. However, it is across the board,” Rupert told Trump during the press briefing.

He said a large percentage of the murders are due to poverty and illegal aliens flooding into South Africa.

Rupert pointed out that when big companies leave towns and cities, it has a devastating effect on those communities, further creating a culture of dependency.

“If we do not get our economy to grow, the culture of dependency and lawlessness will increase across South Africa,” he said.

He asked Trump for the United States’ help and Elon Musk for his technology to address the scourge of crime in South Africa.

Trump takes aim at President Cyril Ramaphosa

Ramaphosa came to the White House looking to persuade Trump to stop floating the conspiracy theory that there’s a genocide against white people in South Africa.

The South African President sought a meeting with Trump to establish a relationship with the US President and enhance trade.

“If there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you these three gentlemen would not be here,” Ramaphosa said, referring to Els, Goosen, and Rupert. That was the cue.

Trump asked that the lights be dimmed and teed up a video that purported to back up his claims that White farmers are being targeted.

Among its images was leftist South African opposition leader Julius Malema chanting “kill the Boer,” which means farmer in Afrikaans.

He then showed a video with white crosses next to a road. “Each one of those white things you see is a cross, and there are approximately a thousand of them,” Trump said.

“You’re taking people’s land away from them, and those people, in many cases, are being executed.”

Ramaphosa had initially struck an upbeat tone at the meeting, calling for a reset in ties between the two countries and to advance trade.

After the video aired, Ramaphosa remained calm. He stressed the necessity for the countries to work together, and as reporters were ushered out of the room.

At a post-meeting media briefing, President Ramaphosa again tried to put a positive spin on the ordeal.

He said they’d had constructive closed-door talks about continuing to engage on trade and expressed confidence that Trump would attend the G-20 in Johannesburg in November.

However, the United States didn’t commit, and top people have skipped G-20 meetings in the run-up to the leaders’ summit.

“It was definitely an ambush, because the program format was changed at the last minute,” South African Presidency spokesman Vincent Magwenya said.

“You could see, standing inside the Oval Office, that this was a well-planned, well-orchestrated operation,” he added.

The rand weakened as the discussion between Trump and Ramaphosa became more heated. It traded 0.1% lower at 17.9450 per dollar by 8:25 p.m. in Johannesburg.

Reporting with Bloomberg.