Not a Diplomatic Visit: Ramaphosa Grovels in Washington

Zabalaza for Socialism

The spectacle of Donald Trump’s tirade at his White House meeting with president Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa was met with appropriate revulsion against the racist and lying U.S. president. Less well known are the views of the left in South Africa and its critical stance toward the government.

The following statement was issued by ZASO, Zabalaza for Socialism, an ecosocialist, feminist and anti-racist organization founded in South Africa in December 2023. ZASO aims to unite the left and build a mass movement for socialism in South Africa, promoting a democratic, grassroots approach that stands against authoritarian methods.

ZABALAZA FOR SOCIALISM (ZASO) strongly condemns the shameful performance of President Cyril Ramaphosa and the so-called “Government of National Unity” during their recent meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. This was not a diplomatic visit — it was a display of subservience, cowardice, and betrayal.

While the people of South Africa suffer under the unbearable weight of unemployment, hunger, and deep inequality, our president jets off to Washington to beg for approval from a racist imperialist regime. But worse still, he used that platform to parade our people’s struggles as a threat to “democracy” and “stability”— not because the ruling elite want real change, but because they fear it.

The ANC, propped up by the DA (Democratic Alliance) and Freedom Front Plus in their so-called “unity” government, has now officially chosen its side: the side of white capital, imperialist powers, and the comprador elite.

Ramaphosa used his time in the belly of the beast not to speak of justice, land, and redress, but to paint radical forces in South Africa as dangerous, irrational, and uncivilized. He didn’t defend South Africa’s sovereignty. He didn’t speak about the genocide in Palestine supported by the USA. He did not speak about reversing the economic apartheid that continues to oppress the poor majority. He did not speak about the cuts in U.S. aid and the impending deaths which will result across the African continent. He didn’t challenge U.S. imperialism, the extreme weaponization of trade policies or the stranglehold of Western capital. He apologized for our anger.

The story of white genocide is an obvious response to the South African case against Israel for its genocides in Palestine. Of course, the South African delegation could not account for the terrible levels of crime as an outcome of extreme levels of inequality and mass unemployment.

Worse still, he let John Steenhuisen — the mouthpiece of white privilege — speak on his behalf! A president of a supposedly liberated country allowing the leader of the Democratic Alliance to assure a racist U.S. regime that the ANC-led Government of National Unity is “respectable” and should be supported because it is the best barrier against radical change.

Let us be clear: this is the role the Government of National Unity has been created to play — not to heal our country, not to uplift the poor, but to protect capital, repress resistance, and assure foreign powers that South Africa remains open for exploitation.

This betrayal confirms what we have always known: the GNU is a neoliberal bloc formed in panic, desperate to protect a decaying system from a rising tide of working-class revolt. They fear the poor more than they fear imperialism. They fear land redistribution more than they fear hunger. They fear socialism more than they fear the collapse of our communities.

ZASO Says: Enough!

We reject the demonization of radical movements. We reject the narrative that it is the demand for justice that threatens democracy. It is the refusal to deliver justice that threatens peace.

ZASO calls on all militant forces — unions, youth, social movements, and communities — to unite and expose this charade. No liberation can come from begging at the feet of empire. No justice can be won by making deals with those who profit from our oppression.

We need a revolutionary alternative. We need a people’s movement rooted in struggle, not in Stellenbosch. We need a socialist rupture — to take back the land, reclaim our economy, and end the rule of capital once and for all.

The GNU is not our government. Ramaphosa is not our leader. Trump is not our friend.

Down with the Government of National
Unity! Down with imperialism!
Forward to socialism!
Power to the working class!
Power to the poor!
#NotInOurName #DownWithGNU
#SocialismNow

July-August 2025, ATC 237