‘Africa loves’ Donald Trump according to Patrice Motsepe

donald trump patrice motsepe africa

“Africa loves you,” exclaimed businessman Patrice Motsepe, as he shook the hand of US President Donald Trump in Davos on Thursday.

At a panel which featured the two prominent men in their own countries, Motsepe donned the continental spokesperson hat and lauded the US president.

“Africa loves America. Africa loves you. It’s very, very important. We want America to do well,” he can be heard cooing to Trump.

“The success of America is the success of the rest of the world.”

It’s not clear what prompted Motsepe’s soliloquy, but it shot his name to the top of Twitter trending charts on Friday.

Sentiment was mixed too.

Some thanked Patrice Motsepe for doing everything he can to remove Africa from a potential future global war.

Some figured Motsepe was actually wearing his businessman face, effectively “pitching” himself to Trump.

Even Fikile Mbalula, SA’s minister of transport (and unofficial minister of Twitter), chimed in with his disagreement.

“I also don’t agree that Africa loves Donald Trump,” he said.

Others demanded an end to the “UNGRATEFULNESS” and remembered the time that Beyonce and Messi were “brought” to South Africa by the businessman.

But others had more verbose arguments against Patrice Motsepe’s actions.

“What Motsepe did was uncalled for; you can’t go anywhere in the world and speak on half of an entire continent,” said Twitter user @_AfricanSoil.

“His utterances are dangerous and very irresponsible.”

Motsepe’s being surprisingly generous here too, considering the thoughts of other prominent South Africans about Trump.

In 2018, EFF leader Julius Malema famously called the US president a “pathological liar” after Trump’s tweet about South Africa’s land reform plans.

Feature image: @unclescrooch‘s tweet featuring Patrice Motsepe and Donald Trump at Davos in January 2020, by Andy Walker/Memeburn

Andy Walker, former editor
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