South Africa’s government has summoned the US ambassador to the United States to discuss “undiplomatic statements” that show a deepening rift between Pretoria and Washington.
Foreign Affairs Minister Ronald Lamola announced on Wednesday that he had summoned Ambassador Leo Brent Bozell III, who was appointed last month, following a series of comments he made.
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“We called on the U.S. ambassador, Ambassador Bozell, and asked him to explain his undiplomatic statements,” Lamola said.
The summons comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump continues to ramp up pressure on South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government over claims that white Afrikaners face persecution in the country.
Last year, the Trump administration imposed a flat 30% tariff on South Africa, but a recent court ruling invalidated those tariffs.
The United States also extended refugee status to white Africans based on claims that they faced “unlawful or unreasonable discrimination,” even as it halted resettlement of nearly all other refugee groups.
South African government leaders, including senior Afrikaner officials, acknowledge that crime remains high in the country, but reject the idea that white Afrikaners are being specifically targeted. They point to higher crime rates among black residents.
Tensions reached a fever pitch last year when President Trump confronted Ramaphosa during an Oval Office meeting in May and presented images and videos that he claimed were evidence of his attempts to violently persecute white Afrikaners.
Several subsequent analyzes found that the images were misrepresented and, in some cases, depicted violence in other countries.
Claim of “hate speech”
Bozell, a champion of conservative media, is a longtime ally of Trump. In late February, he was appointed ambassador to South Africa.
But he has recently come under fire for comments he has made condemning what he calls “hate speech” and criticizing the country’s post-apartheid policies.
In his first public appearance as ambassador, at a gathering of business leaders on Tuesday, Boesel chanted an apartheid-era chant: “Kill the Boers, kill the farmers.”
The chant is rejected by many leaders of the anti-apartheid movement and remains controversial in South Africa. However, the country’s courts ruled that the chants did not constitute “hate speech” and should be seen in the context of the struggle against white minority rule, which ended in 1994.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t care what the courts say. That’s hate speech,” Bozell said Tuesday.
Bozell appeared to backtrack on Wednesday, saying his comments reflected “personal views” in a post on social media platform X.
“The U.S. government respects the independence and findings of the South African judiciary,” he added.
Bozell also criticized policies aimed at addressing apartheid-era employment disparities between white and black South Africans. He compared this approach to apartheid-era policies that discriminated against black citizens.
However, Foreign Minister Ramola rejected that analogy. “Unfortunately, widespread black economic empowerment is not reverse racism, as the ambassador implied,” Lamola said.
“This is a fundamental measure designed to address the structural imbalances of South Africa’s unique history. It is a constitutional obligation that the South African government can and will never waive.”
Lamola added that Bozell “must not lead us back to a polarized society along racial lines.”
Bozell’s appointment itself is expected to gradually escalate tensions between the two countries.
Mr. Bozell founded the Media Research Center, which describes itself as a “media watchdog” that works to “expose and counter left-leaning bias in the national news media.”
In 1990, when Nelson Mandela toured the United States after his release during the fight against apartheid, Bozell’s nonprofit organization criticized the media, saying they “never called Mandela a saboteur or a terrorist.”
Bosell faced this statement during his Senate confirmation hearing in October. He replied that at the time Mandela was “allied with the Soviet Union.”
He added that he now had the “greatest respect” for Mr Mandela.
Bozell’s son, Leo Brent Bozell IV, was convicted and sentenced for his participation in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. He was then among 1,600 people pardoned by President Trump last year.
recent diplomatic disputes
The South African summons was just the latest diplomatic spat for the Trump administration.
In February, France’s foreign ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador Charles Kushner, the father of President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, after saying the killings of far-right activists were evidence of “on the rise of violent extremism.”
Kushner was temporarily barred from contacting government officials after failing to appear in court, but his access was later restored.
That same month, another US ambassador, Bill White, was also summoned for talks with the Belgian government after accusing officials of “anti-Semitism” for investigating whether ritual circumcisions were being performed in Antwerp without proper medical training.
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévost said White’s comments “violate fundamental diplomatic norms.”
