The Trump administration announced Tuesday it will impose travel bans on South African officials accused of supporting “anti-white discrimination,” inciting violence against minorities and enabling land seizures without compensation — escalating tensions between the two countries on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly.
“The United States remains gravely concerned about racially motivated crime and government-sponsored discrimination occurring in Afrikaners and other minority populations in South Africa,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in announcing the restrictions, citing “race-based discriminatory legislation, threats of land expropriation without compensation, and incitement of racial violence through dehumanizing chants and slogans.”
“The United States will not allow such behavior to go unchecked,” Rubio added. “These actions directly undermine peace, economic stability, and the rule of law, and they are incompatible with the pillars of America’s foreign policy.”
The State Department announcement did not reveal which officials or how many are subject to the new sanctions, though activists have previously called for the US to punish officials of the African National Congress party, the party of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and the largest in the country’s Parliament.
The White House has repeatedly accused South Africa of unfairly disadvantaging the country’s white Afrikaners, who make up no more than 8% of the 62 million-strong population. South African officials have rejected those claims, insisting they are the product of online misinformation and arguing that its policies are meant to address racial and economic inequalities dating from the apartheid era.
Rubio’s announcement was backed by US Ambassador to South Africa L. Brent Bozell III, who met with Ramaphosa last month, but said in an X post Wednesday that he’s “attempted time and again to express” that South Africa could face consequences if it did not take actions on the administration’s demands and concerns.
“The time for endless ‘dialogue’ has run its course. No more. America has just so much patience,” said Bozell, warning that the restrictions were “only the first step in a series of escalatory measures” intended to demonstrate what he called America’s “firm resolve.”
“We want strong, and lasting relations with the South African government. It needs to show it wants the same. So far it has shown it cares for neither,” he added.
South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola” responded to Rubio Wednesday by acknowledging “the United States may hold differing views on certain policy measures and their implementation … The people of South Africa likewise respect the right of the American people to develop legislation that addresses their own circumstances.
“We expect that the same respect will be accorded to the people of South Africa, as the principle of sovereignty requires.”
The travel restrictions follow other sanctions imposed on South Africa by Washington, including barring South African officials from meetings of the Group of 20 economic bloc earlier this year, and phasing out aid for the country’s HIV treatment program.
In May, the administration announced plans to admit up to 10,000 more white South African refugees into the United States in the coming months, arguing they were victims of discrimination and persecution.
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