Zürcher Nachrichten - S.Africans joke about Trump's claims ahead of White House visit

EUR -
AED 4.303863
AFN 82.246499
ALL 98.021992
AMD 449.671513
ANG 2.097286
AOA 1074.646617
ARS 1391.811212
AUD 1.792193
AWG 2.112377
AZN 1.996908
BAM 1.955241
BBD 2.364524
BDT 143.229075
BGN 1.955241
BHD 0.440474
BIF 3488.003358
BMD 1.171915
BND 1.494273
BOB 8.091688
BRL 6.421514
BSD 1.171065
BTN 100.139387
BWP 15.656526
BYN 3.832405
BYR 22969.536814
BZD 2.352328
CAD 1.606755
CDF 3376.287953
CHF 0.947843
CLF 0.028433
CLP 1091.108233
CNY 8.405566
CNH 8.406054
COP 4731.24812
CRC 590.631236
CUC 1.171915
CUP 31.055751
CVE 110.233503
CZK 24.729407
DJF 208.540413
DKK 7.459948
DOP 69.670093
DZD 151.08583
EGP 58.232361
ERN 17.578727
ETB 158.200997
FJD 2.626555
FKP 0.854244
GBP 0.864978
GEL 3.188067
GGP 0.854244
GHS 12.121536
GIP 0.854244
GMD 83.796446
GNF 10146.100911
GTQ 9.006427
GYD 244.900024
HKD 9.198773
HNL 30.599257
HRK 7.534833
HTG 153.526132
HUF 398.896931
IDR 19027.50725
ILS 3.968937
IMP 0.854244
INR 100.146599
IQD 1534.061666
IRR 49366.925837
ISK 141.989691
JEP 0.854244
JMD 187.676374
JOD 0.830934
JPY 169.511712
KES 151.356752
KGS 102.418398
KHR 4694.658575
KMF 492.794764
KPW 1054.746821
KRW 1599.172416
KWD 0.35836
KYD 0.975921
KZT 609.225923
LAK 25253.784127
LBP 104926.318947
LKR 351.19965
LRD 234.213077
LSL 20.971708
LTL 3.460361
LVL 0.70888
LYD 6.342188
MAD 10.573479
MDL 19.832333
MGA 5148.528888
MKD 61.512424
MMK 2460.534478
MNT 4199.800299
MOP 9.469694
MRU 46.702655
MUR 52.924131
MVR 18.051875
MWK 2030.619782
MXN 22.061348
MYR 4.955448
MZN 74.956135
NAD 20.971708
NGN 1809.132725
NIO 43.097686
NOK 11.809718
NPR 160.223219
NZD 1.935291
OMR 0.448972
PAB 1.171065
PEN 4.156612
PGK 4.83062
PHP 66.342555
PKR 332.139896
PLN 4.243905
PYG 9345.329718
QAR 4.26858
RON 5.081311
RSD 117.146527
RUB 92.123677
RWF 1691.016818
SAR 4.395033
SBD 9.782372
SCR 17.186389
SDG 703.739351
SEK 11.120893
SGD 1.495251
SHP 0.920941
SLE 26.372388
SLL 24574.478898
SOS 669.208784
SRD 44.293749
STD 24256.277385
SVC 10.247072
SYP 15237.425283
SZL 20.967009
THB 38.151742
TJS 11.546601
TMT 4.113422
TND 3.423522
TOP 2.744747
TRY 46.659846
TTD 7.948729
TWD 34.106291
TZS 3085.918247
UAH 48.826249
UGX 4209.797116
USD 1.171915
UYU 47.17652
UZS 14739.788336
VES 124.930261
VND 30581.125672
VUV 140.267499
WST 3.208176
XAF 655.769624
XAG 0.032563
XAU 0.000358
XCD 3.16716
XDR 0.815567
XOF 655.769624
XPF 119.331742
YER 283.896869
ZAR 20.941843
ZMK 10548.646794
ZMW 27.725078
ZWL 377.356198
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

S.Africans joke about Trump's claims ahead of White House visit
S.Africans joke about Trump's claims ahead of White House visit / Photo: Issouf SANOGO - AFP/File

S.Africans joke about Trump's claims ahead of White House visit

At a raucous comedy night in Johannesburg, no comedian could avoid cracking a joke about the chartered flight that, exactly a week earlier, took about 50 white South Africans to the United States for "refugee" resettlement.

Text size:

Spotting a middle-aged white couple seated in the diverse audience, 31-year-old comedian Tsitsi Chiumya pulled a theatrically shocked face.

"White people! There are still some left! We need to make them extra comfortable," he exclaimed, the crowd erupting into laughter.

Trump has used allegations of the "persecution" of white Afrikaners to attack South Africa but the claims have largely been ridiculed at home, where the legacies of white-minority rule are all too apparent 30 years after the end of apartheid.

Bilateral ties have plummeted this year over a range of policies and President Cyril Ramaphosa is due to meet US leader Donald Trump in Washington on Wednesday in a bid to repair the damage.

- 'Laugh through the pain' -

The couples, families and groups of friends gathered at the sold-out weekly comedy night came from all backgrounds and races.

Co-host Shanray van Wyk was Afrikaans-speaking but from the "Coloured" community, a tag created by the former apartheid regime to designate a varied group of mixed-race people.

"I also tried to apply, because I’m Afrikaans,” he told the crowd. "But they were very specific," he said, pointing to his skin.

The audience cheered as comic Dillan Oliphant quipped, "When you’re privileged, equality feels like oppression."

"There’s no 'white genocide' here," he said, picking up on a baseless claim repeated by Trump in his attacks on South Africa.

"We can’t kill the white people ... They live too far away!" he joked, a reference to the largely race-based spatial divisions that still mark South African cities, another legacy of apartheid's racial segregation.

The challenges of living in South Africa -- from high crime to wide inequality between rich and poor -- mean that many of its citizens are "particularly predisposed to dark humour" as a "trauma response", said comedian Dan Corder.

"It's a natural response ... to laugh through the pain and the absurdity of rampant corruption, power outages, roads being ruined, things not working," said Corder, who hosts a late-night television show that has also debunked Trump's claims.

Humour has been "a really nice way to disarm people and to respond" to Trump’s "ludicrous" claims, said social media comedian and actor Anton Taylor.

Taylor, who has a mix of Afrikaner and English ancestry, has released multiple skits mocking the "white genocide" conspiracy.

In one, seen more than 100,000 times on TikTok, he cheers in pride that his country has produced "the best-fed, wealthiest refugees the world has ever seen".

- 'Farcical' -

"When you see the lifestyle that the majority of white South Africans live, it is the furthest thing from a persecuted people that one could imagine," Taylor told AFP.

White people make up 7.3 percent of the population but still own most of the country’s farmland. Unemployment among white South Africans is just under seven percent but affects 36 percent of the black majority, according to official statistics.

"The thought that we are being persecuted is farcical, so I will keep making jokes reinforcing the idea that this is a joke and should be treated as such," Taylor said.

While there was some trepidation that Ramaphosa's meeting with Trump could unravel into a televised confrontation, the high-stakes visit was still "a real point of pride", Corder said.

"Almost like witnessing a strong, quiet parent waiting for a petulant child to finish their tantrum," he laughed. "I think it's going to be very funny."

P.E.Steiner--NZN