(Ret) Col Chris Wyatt - Ramaphosa’s "Watergate", Trump’s ceasefire “farce” - and racist abuse of SA refugees…

In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, US intelligence analyst, retired Colonel Chris Wyatt comments on the latest developments in the trouble-hit presidencies of South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and US President Donald Trump. With African National Congress (ANC) officials in crisis meetings this weekend over the possibility that he could be impeached for Phala Phala, Col Wyatt charges: “... somebody should be in prison for this. This is bigger than Watergate in America. This is money laundering by a sitting president, potentially.” As for Trump stuck in a war he started: “Col Wyatt says: “...the answer here now is…rendition. It's Delta Force. Seal teams…grabbing these guys and rendered…that's the only way this is going to end, I think. They're not going to come to the table…this ceasefire has become a farce.” Col Wyatt also shares what he believes will be on the agenda for private discussions when Trump visits China soon. Lastly, he reveals that some South African refugees have suffered racist abuse which he vows to expose..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..Watch here.Listen here.Edited transcript of the interview.Chris Steyn (00:01.236)A tale of two presidents today: one facing possible impeachment and the other one stuck in a war that he started. I'm with US intelligence analyst, retired Colonel Chris Wyatt. Welcome, Chris.Colonel Chris Wyatt (00:15.17)Hey Chris, thanks a lot. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there around the world. I mean, my mom is gone, but everyone else has got a mom. Happy Mother's Day to them.Chris Steyn (00:24.738)Thank you, Chris. I see you're not in your usual studio. Where are you?Colonel Chris Wyatt (00:29.746)Actually, that is correct. I'm in Tampa, Florida at McDeal Air Force Base, the headquarters of Central Command, U.S. Special Operations Command, the folks responsible for the conduct of the conflict taking place in Iran.Chris Steyn (00:41.576)So you've got your ear to the wall. Can you tell us what's the latest?Colonel Chris Wyatt (00:47.243)Well, there's no planes flying outside. We must be in a ceasefire.Chris Steyn (00:55.04)Before we speak about your President Donald Trump's bind, let us talk about our President, Cyril Ramaphosa. Apparently, senior ANC officials have been in crisis meetings this weekend over the possibility that he could be impeached.Colonel Chris Wyatt (01:12.128)Indeed, the ConCourt's decision to overrule Parliament’s, what they consider unconstitutional decision to dismiss the independent report, out of hand, which at the time I said, how could they be constitutional? I'm not an attorney, but I asked that question. Turns out that I asked the right question. Now, the case was brought by the Economic Freedom fFighters, and they waited 14 months before they brought the case. The court said that that was too long, but they didn't prejudice the case on the merits. And so they continue with the case. It took them a long time to reach a decision, but they finally reached a decision that in fact that Parliament's rubber stamp by a supermajority ANC in the previous Parliament was not legitimate….violated the Constitution. Therefore, it must go forward and it must consider the impeachment. And so the ANC is scrambling. And Julius Malema, the convicted felon, is calling for Ramaphosa to resign. I think that's rich. I think Julius should resign. Then Ramaphosa can resign and follow him if he likes. To see a convicted felon sitting up there telling the president of the country to resign is, I think, the height of hypocrisy. But this is a case that many thought would simply be dismissed. I wasn't sure. I didn't know which way the court would go. But most disturbing for me, is that four justices said that it was constitutional. They're obviously just rubber stamped for the ANC and cannot understand the rule of law. I mean, if I as a layperson 6,000 miles away can read the Constitution and question this on its merits, and then august justices inside the Constitutional Court agree that it's unconstitutional, how can any of them dissent? This should have been an 11-to-nothing decision. There should have been no dissent on this whatsoever. But from here, we'll see what happens. The EFF gave Parliament Speaker 48 hours to take action. 48 hours have passed, no action is taken. So what exactly is the EFF gonna do now?But the bottom line is that this really throws South Africa's presidency into crisis. And the issue for me, Chris, is less about Parliament. I appreciate what they're trying to do… throwing out of Parliament. That's not satisfactory for me. I want criminal prosecution for money laundering, for customs violations, for perversion of the means of justice, for kidnapping, for torture, for the SAPS lying in their annual report about the VIP residences they protect saying there were no break-ins at any of the 43 properties. I want justice here. And if Cyril Ramaphosa is not responsible, somebody is.Colonel Chris Wyatt (03:34.161)…and somebody should be in prison for this. This is bigger than Watergate in America. This is money laundering by a sitting president, potentially. Potentially. It's definitely money laundering by somebody. The Sudanese businessman, Mustafa, never took possession of the bull he supposedly purchased. It stayed on Phala Phala. He didn't buy semen. It wasn't a stud fee. This is money laundering. And Chris, this is the tip of the iceberg. How many times has this happened we don't know about? No one's asking that question. And no one's also making the point that I'm making, National Prosecuting Authorities should be preferring charges. They have a prima facie case from this investigation. There is no reason not to. And the only fall guy they're going after is Wally Rhoode, who's a good fall guy, because that race hustler who cried about the polls being racist when he brought crews or weapons into Poland and didn't give a proper diplomatic clearance request, you know, I don't have problem with him taking a fall on this because obviously he probably has some role here. But where is the prosecution? See, the whole country is now going to be enmeshed in this… this impeachment for the rest of Ramaphosa’s term…if he doesn't resign, the cloud will hang and it will just disappear. Criminal prosecution must take place. This is not trivial. This is the most serious it possibly can get. And somebody's been caught red handed. Has Cyril been caught red handed? Well, the people who work for him have certainly been caught red handed. Is he responsible? Well, one would think he is. People in South Africa are not talking about the criminal prosecution. They're talking about parliament. I don't care about parliament kicking out. That really isn't the issue for me. Criminal prosecution, consequences for actions. That's what I care about.Chris Steyn (05:05.515)From your president, sorry, from my president to your president, President Donald Trump seems keen to end the war, but Iran seems able or willing to keep it going for months. How do you see this playing out, Colonel?Colonel Chris Wyatt (05:21.443)Well, I see it playing out the same way South Africa is playing out. The ANC doesn't care how miserable the country gets, how many potholes there are, how poor the poor are, how impoverished black South Africans are, how hungry South Africans are, how many gangsters murder people at…. They don't care. They're not doing anything to stop. They don't care about gender-based violence. That's a bumper sticker they bring up every time they need to distract you from some other failure in the park. And this is about the elites ruling for the elites. It's the same thing in Iran. They don't care about the suffering of the Iranian people, although the Iranian people have not paid a very high price for this, thankfully. It's mostly the elites. They don't care. It's about naked political power, and they will hold on till the bitter end. The only way for this to end is to remove this cancer that is the leadership of this theocracy. That's it. We've already down to the third and fourth tier, and they seem just as determined, if not more determined, to let the United States destroy the country if necessary. And I hope that Trump doesn't take that path. I mean, the answer here now is, you know, rendition. It's Delta Force. Seal teams, you know, grabbing these guys and rendered. But that's only way this is going to end, I think. They're not going to come to the table. They refuse to give up the 463 kilograms of uranium, which they swore they didn't have. When Obama gave them $1.7 billion flown in U.S. dollars, stripping all the major banks out of their cash currency reserves in Northern Virginia, Maryland, and D.C., putting it on military planes and making us complicit in his crimes, sending that money, which didn't belong to those mullahs, to Iran.You know, these people are empowered. They think they're untouchable, and they are touchable. The Israelis made that pretty clear as they basically assassinated much of their leadership. But this thing isn't going to end because they won't give up that new rich uranium. And they denied they had it. They denied they had it for years. Obama was hoodwinked by them because he's a fool. And then Trump did nothing about it in his first term. Biden did nothing about it. And they're on the verge of a nuclear weapon here. They finally disclosed it in the negotiations before this conflict started.I guess they thought they had a Trump card, no pun intended. We have 463 kilograms of enriched uranium at 60%. Mm-hmm, well, I thought she didn't have any. And nobody's even questioned that the whole world….It's like the weapons of mass destruction, they weren't there, except that they were there. But the bottom line here is that there was no enriched uranium, except there is. They themselves admitted. So where's the uranium at? Why won't they give it up? Because they want a nuclear weapon so they can cinder Israel.Colonel Chris Wyatt (07:38.903)That's what this is about. They want to turn it into a cinder. This will start a global conflagration. This is a dangerous state, and these people won't let go. Trump, I don't know what his endgame was here, but the endgame should be the removal of all these people. There are no rational people to deal with there. Why are we even talking about this at this point? It's… this ceasefire has become a farce.Chris Steyn (07:59.554)Chris, meanwhile, President Trump is set to become the first US president in a decade to visit China. What do you think he's hoping to achieve there?Colonel Chris Wyatt (08:10.22)Well, first off, I think he's going to focus on pronouncing China correctly. It's not China. Hopefully Trump will play nice with Xi Jinping. He wants a couple of things. Number one, he wants the Chinese to, and this won't be talked about much, but he wants them to stop stealing intellectual property, quit spying on America. This will be talked about privately. I'm sure Trump will give a pretty harsh message. We keep finding Chinese spies in our universities, Americans selling secrets to Chinese, or naturalised Chinese who we foolishly let into our system that are stealing secrets and giving. I mean, these cases don't get much attention, but there have been dozens of Chinese espionage cases that are being prosecuted right now in the United States or investigated. He's going to talk to him privately about that. The press won't cover that. And that's fine. That's not an issue that really should get a lot of attention. It just needs to be dealt with leader to leader. I don't think China will back off, but that's one thing. But more importantly, he's going to focus on China and trade and specifically about rare earth elements. The Chinese, while the world was busy, you know, not paying attention, the Chinese quietly over a two decade period went around the world and bought up every rare earth mine they could find, whatever the price, and controls over 90 % of rare earths. And that's a major problem in the 21st century with IT and with electric vehicles and with wind turbines and all these things that require rare earths, which aren't really rare. That's a misnomer. It's just their concentration is very thin. So they're called rare because you have to mine tons of ore just to get an ounce or a pound or a kilo of the metal. And that's what makes them rare. So entire ecosystems are destroyed by this mining, especially if it's not put back in the state that it was previously. So that's a big topic for him there. Also, quietly, he's going to start warning the Chinese to knock it off in the South China Sea. Their so-called nine-dash line, their threats and their actual attacks on Philippines and Vietnam, attacking their fishing fleets, firing live ammunition at Taiwan, Trump will in private make a big deal about this…is again something the media won't talk about because they just get to sit in the press conference and listen to the leaders talk and that's what they'll talk about. But they won't talk about what happens behind the scenes in the quiet hours when they're drinking tea together and this is what I'm talking about. China needs to knock it off. For their part, the Chinese will probably, Xi Jinping, tell Trump, what's with the tariffs? Knock it off. We're just trying to trade with you. Now, that's disingenuous, but that's what Xi will push. He wants stabilisation. Just pick a tariff. Tell us what the tariff is and we'll work it out.Colonel Chris Wyatt (10:32.35)And then they'll find ways to keep our products out of their economy and also hit us with barriers that are effectively tariffs. So he just wants to know what the price is so that they can move on because China's economy is in freefall. They're in trouble right now, a lot of trouble. And not just because they're not getting oil from Iran, but they've got lots of problems and mounted over the past three decades. The chickens have come home to roost in China. And so he's going to talk about that. He's also going to say that, listen, we're the big fish over here. You're on the other side of the Pacific. You know, we are patrolling these seas and we are the ones responsible for ensuring the globalised communication in this part of the world to our liking. He won't say it quite that nasty fashion, but that's basically what going to say. The Chinese are not going to back down from the military buildup and they're not going to concede the East China Sea, the South China Sea, the Pacific Ocean to the United States. That will be a very contentious conversation that won't get any attention because it's obviously the content would be classified. I think that's what's going to happen. At the end of this, we'll probably see a couple token things so that both leaders can save face and say, look, we agreed. Now the Americans will let us ship Octopus into America with no tariff, and we'll let the Americans send us fidget spinners for no charge. But wait, they're made in China, so we'll ship them to America, then they'll ship them back here. I mean, something's silly. It's not—if there's anything substantive, I'll be shocked.Chris Steyn (11:53.366)Thank you. Now you are still criss-crossing the country to meet with South African refugees. What's the latest?Colonel Chris Wyatt (12:02.204)Well the latest is I've come down to Florida. It was ironic because a lot of refugees in Florida asked me to come down for some time. And I've been announcing for about two months that I would come to Florida in May before it gets unbearably hot down here. And from my perspective, it's already Durban hot, so it's too hot for me. But I said I'd come down. And then about three weeks, a month ago, I said, I'm coming to Florida and I booked my flight because a lot of people in Orlando wanted to see me. But then the people in Orlando became crickets. No, no, a peep, not a sound. So the Orlando portion has become kind of dodgy, although I do have a meet and greet there this afternoon. But a lot of people are in the Tampa Bay, the Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Palm Harbor area. Yesterday I had a meet and greet with over 50 South Africans. It was wonderful. Had a very nice apartment complex, a little pricey, so I wouldn't pay that much for rent, but it's nice. It's very, very lovely, and the South Africans, many of them are living in that complex. Some drove up from Sarasota and other places to join us, and I appreciate them making the trip. They were able to do that. And so over 50 South Africans and those who live there are doing well, for the most part. Some of you, a few issues with case officers, a few administrative problems, but mostly doing well. Later in the afternoon, that was in the morning, I went to St. Petersburg where I met another complex, which actually inside the complex, it kind of reminded me of that show Melrose Place where you have these apartments on the inside in a rectangle. It seems suitable, the decent housing. Maybe not the, it's not a terrible neighborhood, but it's not an upscale neighborhood, but it's habitable. Those folks had many more challenges with their agency. And so I talked to them, they had a braai, it was lovely. Later this morning after our conversation, I'll be going to North Tampa meeting with some South Africans. And I believe that these folks actually are having some challenges. The second meeting was 30, the first one was 50, so that's 80. I've been told there's as many as 50 people waiting to see me later this afternoon, or this morning. Wait, I'm sorry. This morning's about 30, and then in the afternoon I do have a meet and greet in Orlando, so I'll leave here and drive back to Orlando. And I've been told there are supposedly going to be 50 people show up after I didn't hear from people. I'm just trusting that my champion on the ground that's coordinating this has got the right information. Whatever the case is, that means I will have come across about another 150, 180 South Africans who are part of programmr. Given that there's now over 6,000 here in the United States,Colonel Chris Wyatt (14:20.279)That means I will have met in person five, over 500, close to 600…about 10% of them have actually met in person all across the country during my travels. And I've been in contact with close to 3,000 of the 6,000. Bearing in mind that a lot of these are families with kids, so I wouldn't be talking to everybody anyway. So I would say I've probably talked to one third or maybe 40% of all the refugee families that have come to America. It's been a fascinating experience so far. One of the big things I'm running into now though, Chris, is I'm running into more than more than one, but several instances in place around the country where case officers, either Americans, white Americans, or former refugees from other countries are bigots and racist towards South Africans. I've seen this on multiple occasions. One of our refugees was verbally accosted by someone in a hotel calling her a white, fascist, racist, B-word. She was just walking the hallway because she's South African. In another place, a case officer at the Audacity, I told the person to file a complaint. ‘So the only reason you're here is because you're blonde and blue eyed. And my people can't come over because of you.’ This is unacceptable and should not be tolerated and these people should be rooted out. I will expose racists everywhere I find them, whether they're racist against black people or brown people or white people, that's a stupid, ignorant position to take. And it comes from a standpoint that these people are dimwitted lunatics who don't understand history. About half the people that have come over, almost half are under the age of, or more than half are under the age of 32. They had nothing to do with Apartheid. You don't blame people for something that someone else did. And so this stupidity needs to stop, and I'm trying to expose it everywhere I find it. And I will expose the people…, because if they're bold enough to be racist in public, then I guess they don't mind being exposed in public, their name and who they are. So that, by the way, that's not doxxing. You do something in public, that's not doxxing. That's, you know, doxxing is giving away somebody's address and phone number. That's different. So yeah, that's happening. But by and large of the 6,000, was it 6,437 that are here because four South Africans have gone back. But 6,000, this is as of the end of April. Now it's been more days, so it's higher number now. But of the 6,347 that are here, the vast majority are adapting well and doing very well. One bought a house within four months of coming here last year. Many of them have vehicles. I'd say the majority have…Colonel Chris Wyatt (16:38.804)…jobs now, which is a stark contrast to the Somalis who come over a 30-year period. Seventy-five percent of them live on public assistance to this day, whereas the South Africans within three or four months, about half or more already have jobs. So it's going relatively well, and we'll see what happens. But we're about to reach that so-called cap of 7,000 of the 7,500. If we reach that cap, the question is, will they still come over? We have four and a half months left in this fiscal year until we get to the end of the fiscal year of 30 September and we will have reached the 7,000 cap that the Trump administration established. Now, I told folks not to be too concerned about that because if an administration wants more people here, there are ways to do it. They'll ignore the cap. And then one of my viewers said, you're wrong. It's never been done. Well, yes, it has because they simply use other programmes like humanitarian relief or they'll use temporary protected status, things like that. the... So Reuters reported about three weeks ago that in fact the Trump administration was planning on raising the cap, not just...going around it, but raising it, which they have the ability to do, from 7,500 to 17,000. At the time, there were only 4,000 some refugees from South Africa, so that meant another 12,000 would come over. But now we've got over 6,000, so potentially 10,000 more South Africans could come over by 30 September. But I think the real problem they're having, Chris, is that when Trump suspended the programme, many of these agencies had to let go of their staff, make them redundant, and they're bum hurt that they've lost these people. And so that some of them work in a shoestring with employees. They're not willing to bring more employees back because the flow of refugees is not warranted from their perspective. And so we have an absorptive capacity issue right now in many places. And I think that's a challenge that most people don't realide that it's not simply you go get interviewed, you get approved. We have to have a place to put you and hopefully a safe sanitary, habitable place, which unfortunately some refugees are not experiencing, but most are.Chris Steyn (18:32.021)Thank you. That was US's intelligence analyst retired Colonel Chris Wyatt speaking to BizNews. I'm Chris Steyn. Thank you, Chris.Colonel Chris Wyatt (18:40.785)Thanks Chris, so once again, happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. They do a lot. We wouldn't be here without them. God bless.

(Ret) Col Chris Wyatt - Ramaphosa’s "Watergate", Trump’s ceasefire “farce” - and racist abuse of SA refugees…

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