President Donald Trump meets South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. AFP
The unexpected stunt turned the usually staid diplomatic setting of the Oval Office into a stage for Trump's contention that white South Africans are being persecuted.
With the media standing by and Ramaphosa at times unable to get a word in, Trump dimmed the lights to play a video on a large screen, claiming it showed a far-left politician chanting a song that includes the lyrics “kill the farmer.”
"They're white farmers, and they're fleeing South Africa, and it's a very sad thing to see. But I hope we can have an explanation of that, because I know you don't want that," Trump said.
Ramaphosa repeatedly tried to speak but was drowned out.
"We were taught by Nelson Mandela that whenever there are problems, people need to sit down around the table and talk about them. And this is precisely what we would also like to talk about," he said, strongly rejecting Trump’s allegations.
Experts in South Africa say there is no evidence of whites being targeted, although farmers of all races are victims of violent home invasions in a country that suffers from a very high crime rate.
The visit by the South African leader was billed as a chance to smooth relations following vociferous -- and unfounded -- claims by Trump and his billionaire, South African-born ally Elon Musk, who was also in the Oval Office.
"We are essentially here to reset the relationship between the United States and South Africa," Ramaphosa said.
He arrived at the White House with two of South Africa's top golfers, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, and the country's wealthiest man, Johann Rupert, in a bid to woo the golf-loving US president.
The support of the three high-profile Afrikaners in Ramaphosa's delegation comes days after around 50 Afrikaners arrived in the United States to take up Trump's offer of "refuge."
Trump made the offer despite the United States having halted arrivals of asylum seekers from most of the rest of the world as he cracks down on migration.
The South African president was also expected to come bearing gifts, with reports that his government would offer Musk a deal to operate his Starlink satellite internet network in the country.
The Tesla and SpaceX boss has accused Pretoria of "racist" laws, a reference to post-apartheid black empowerment policies seen as a hurdle to the licensing of Starlink.
Land law row
Musk, who has spearheaded Trump's radical cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), attacked the land laws at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday.
Land ownership is a contentious issue in South Africa, with most farmland still owned by white people despite being only 7.3 per cent of the population.
Ramaphosa has rejected Washington's allegations that the law will be used to arbitrarily confiscate white-owned land.
South Africa’s agriculture minister, John Steenhuisen, who is white and a member of a different political party than Ramaphosa, told The Associated Press that no land is being seized from farmers and that the claims of genocide are false.
Most of the victims of South Africa's sky-high murder rate are young black men in urban areas, according to police figures.
Trump's administration has torn into a series of policies in South Africa since the US president began his second term in office.
It has slammed South Africa's case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice, cut foreign aid, announced 31 per cent tariffs, and expelled Pretoria's ambassador after he criticized Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
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