Human rights advocate Omoyele Sowore has openly criticised South African President Cyril Ramaphosa for what he described as a submissive display during a visit to the White House, where Ramaphosa met with former U.S. President Donald Trump.
In posts shared on his verified Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) accounts Wednesday evening, Sowore denounced the South African leader’s behaviour as humiliating and cowardly, claiming it reflected poorly on African leadership.
Describing the encounter as degrading, Sowore wrote that Ramaphosa appeared powerless in Trump’s presence, calling it “the most demeaning” display he had ever seen from an African president. He implied Ramaphosa had been strategically undermined, stating, “They must have studied that he was a buffoon and subjected him to treatment akin to that of an enslaved African.”
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Sowore also criticised Ramaphosa for not taking a stand on global human rights issues, particularly the conflict in Gaza. “If Cyril Ramaphosa wasn’t an idiot, he could at least have told Trump what genocide truly looks like in Gaza,” he wrote, adding the hashtag #RevolutionNow.
The comments follow a visibly strained Oval Office meeting in which Trump revived contentious claims about the alleged mistreatment of white farmers in South Africa an issue often championed by far-right groups. Ramaphosa, however, downplayed any tensions after the meeting, telling the press that the discussion focused on broader security concerns and economic cooperation.
“We highlighted the existence of a security challenge, which we attribute to general criminality,” Ramaphosa said. He also described the talks as productive and stated there was mutual agreement to strengthen diplomatic and trade ties, particularly regarding Trump’s proposed tariffs.
Despite this optimistic narrative from the South African delegation, critics like Sowore argue that the interaction reinforced negative perceptions of African leaders as overly compliant when dealing with Western powers. Sowore, a longstanding critic of neocolonial influence and weak governance in Africa, used the opportunity to reiterate his call for a politically conscious and assertive African leadership.
