The feeling in South Africa ahead of its leader's meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday was one of fear and apprehension.

"In Trump's hellmouth" was how a newspaper headline described his mission, but Ramaphosa says the meeting was not dramatic.

In its publication, AP News writes that South Africans were concerned that President Cyril Ramaphosa was exposing himself to the same kind of public aggression that Trump and Deputy President JD Vance applied to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in front of the world media three months ago.

However, after being confronted by Trump with allegations of widespread killings of white farmers in South Africa, Ramaphosa said he believed the meeting in the Oval Office was not so dramatic.

"You wanted to see drama and for something great to happen," Ramaphosa told reporters afterwards. "I'm sorry we let you down a bit."

Ramaphosa is known in his home country as a calm and measured politician who is rarely emotional. He has excelled in some of the most difficult and high-profile political negotiations his country has ever faced.

The publication recalls that Ramaphosa was the chief negotiator for the African National Congress Party during the negotiations in the early 1990s that put an end to the dA and Apartheid system, ruled by the white minority, which imposed racial segregation on South Africans for almost half a century.

Ramaphosa sought the meeting with Trump in a bid to correct what he said were misinterpretations of South Africa by the US, and to negotiate new trade deals.

According to AP News, many South Africans did not want him to go to the headquarters of a government that has made serious and false allegations against their country, including that Ramaphosa's government is allowing white farmers to be routinely killed.

Ramaphosa's spokesman said that the video, the newspaper clippings of farm murders produced by Trump, and the general confrontation in the Oval Office created "an orchestrated show for the cameras", and the real subject was the closed-door meeting that followed.

Ramaphosa said he was satisfied after the meeting and listed what he considered to be successes to take home.

The South African president said he believed he had persuaded Trump to attend the G20 summit in South Africa in November, after the Trump administration announced it would boycott the meeting. South Africa will hand over the rotating presidency of the G20 to the US next year.

Ramaphosa said he believed he had begun to change Trump's mind about South Africa, although he admitted that this would probably be "a process".

Cyril Ramaphosa said that negotiations had begun in various areas of trade and cooperation. He also said that the South African delegation received souvenirs to mark their visit to the White House, and that the two exchanged gifts. They gave each other a book."So that was good," said Ramaphosa.