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As President Cyril Ramaphosa heads to the United States for a high-stakes meeting with President Donald Trump, an international relations expert says the task ahead for the Pretoria delegation is monumental.<\/span><\/p>\n reported earlier that <\/span>DA leader, John Steenhuisen, will be part of Ramaphosa\u2019s delegation visiting Trump in a heightened effort by Pretoria to mend relations and also clarify the misinformation about the government targeting white Afrikaners.<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>South African delegation is set to meet with Trump<\/span> at the White House on Wednesday, aiming to restore bilateral ties and confront persistent misinformation about alleged government persecution of white Afrikaners.<\/span><\/p>\n In an interview with broadcaster Newzroom Afrika, <\/span>senior researcher at Centre for African Diplomacy and Leadership at the University of Johannesburg, Professor Oscar Van Heerden said the engagements between Ramaphosa and Trump will likely be choreographed, and we may have a scenario like the February degeneration of Trump\u2019s meeting with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are told the South African delegation asked for an in-camera conversation, in other words they did not want the media to be there, but knowing Donald Trump – this is a whole choreographed, staged situation,” said Van Heerden.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe cameras are going to be there. There won\u2019t be enough time given to the president to explain at length why these things are lies, why there is need for a trade agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n “I do hope President Ramaphosa has a strategy, whether it is touching the knee, touching the shoulder of the president, looking at the camera and saying but it is not true and so on and so forth,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n He said dispelling the lies about the situation in South Africa is easy – if the South African delegation is given the opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe (Ramaphosa) is calling it a working visit. I do hope once the 30 minutes, the cameras have played out in a negative way, in the Zelensky way, in an embarrassing way, but the president will then take time at least a day or two to travel around the United States to meet with Congress, to meet with the Black Caucus to talk to Americans directly, far away from the west wing (in the White House),” said Van Heerden.<\/span><\/p>\n He said Ramaphosa must find the time to explain South Africa\u2019s position and why it is important to dispel the lies.<\/span><\/p>\n Last week, reported that the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) insisted that the group of 49 Afrikaners who left South Africa, heading to the United States under Trump\u2019s offer, are not refugees.<\/span><\/p>\n reported that <\/span>a chartered plane carrying 49 South African Afrikaners departed for the United States on Sunday last week under Trump\u2019s offer for the \u201cdiscriminated\u201d South African individuals and families to relocate.<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>first batch of Afrikaner refugees left OR Tambo International Airport last week, on a flight operated by the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based charter company Omni Air International, and they landed in Washington a day later. <\/span><\/p>\n jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za<\/strong><\/p>\n News<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As President Cyril Ramaphosa heads to the United States for a high-stakes meeting with President Donald Trump, an international relations expert says the task ahead for the Pretoria delegation is monumental. reported earlier that DA leader, John Steenhuisen, will be part of Ramaphosa\u2019s delegation visiting Trump in a heightened effort by Pretoria to mend relations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[13006,426,10223,408,11966],"class_list":{"0":"post-240677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-politics","7":"tag-expert","8":"tag-ramaphosa","9":"tag-trump","10":"tag-weighs","11":"tag-zelensky"},"yoast_head":"\nGet your news on the go, click here to join the News WhatsApp channel. <\/strong><\/h2>\n