South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe must have stirred a
hornets’ nest when he openly told US President Donald Trump that
Africans love him at the recently concluded World Economic Forum at
Davos, Switzerland
·    The Pew Research Center found that while most countries in
the world had low confidence in Trump to do the right thing in world
affairs, he garnered 65% support in Kenya and 58% in Nigeria.
South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe must have stirred a hornets’
nest when he openly told US President Donald Trump that Africans love
him at the recently concluded World Economic Forum at Davos,
Switzerland.
The exact words of Motespe, “Africa loves America. Africa loves you…
we want America to do well. We want you to do well,” might have gone
well with President Trump, who is undergoing the rigorous impeachment
trial in the Senate, after having the impeachment resolution gone
against him in the House of Representatives. But his utterances did
not go well with many fellow Africans, who questioned Motsepe’s
authority to speak in such a language. They questioned how he could
give himself the role of Africa’s spokesman.
But Motsepe is not wide off the mark in his assessment. According to
a recent poll, Trump was popular in Nigeria and Kenya. However the Pew
Research Center found that while most countries in the world had low
confidence in Trump to do the right thing in world affairs, he
garnered 65% support in Kenya and 58% in Nigeria. Will that make any
impact in the 2020 presidential elections in the US, where Trump is
seeking a second term is something, one has to wait and watch. South
Africa recorded 42% confidence in Trump. That shows majority of
Africans took part in the survey is not betting on President Trump.
Fifty seven year old Motsepe told Trump it was an honour to meet him
as they were both listed in a 2017 Forbes magazine profile of the
Greatest Living Business Minds. Patrice Motsepe is a South African
miner and billionaire of Tswana descent. He owns African Rainbow
Minerals, which has interests in gold, ferrous metals, base metals,
and platinum.
