Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday the United States (US) was announcing a new visa restriction policy targeting some foreign nationals from South Africa, as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to cool ties with the country.
Reasons for US criticism
The Trump administration has criticised South Africa over a range of issues including actions aimed at addressing racial inequality that Trump claims hurt the African nation’s white population.
Washington has also criticised land reform policies and South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICC), over the U.S. ally’s assault on Gaza.
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The visa curb policy targets “foreign nationals who are responsible for, or complicit in, the enactment or implementation of laws or policies that enable uncompensated land seizures, race-based discrimination, and/or the incitement of imminent violence against members of minority ethnic or racial groups in South Africa,” Rubio said in a statement.
“The South African government has not adequately addressed the previously laid out concerns,” Rubio said.
Pretoria’s response to claims
The South African embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pretoria says there is no evidence of discrimination or persecution against white people and that ideas of white racial superiority are a threat to South Africa’s post-apartheid unity, its sovereignty and its diplomatic relations. President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for global efforts to debunk false stories about white persecution.
READ: Cyril Ramaphosa hits back at Donald Trump in Reconciliation Day address
Trump has previously cut aid to South Africa, offered refuge to white minority Afrikaners, expelled the country’s ambassador and made false claims of white genocide in the African nation.
Trump’s past actions and rhetoric
Trump’s portrayal of South Africa as dangerous and oppressive for white people also aligns with some of his domestic policies that have targeted diversity initiatives aimed at addressing historic inequities for marginalised groups. Trump casts them as discriminatory against white people and men.
Rubio’s statement on Tuesday did not identify any person by name.
Three decades after the end of apartheid in South Africa, some fringe groups lament the loss of white power that democracy brought. While South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, most victims are Black.
PAC rejects ‘US intimidation’
The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) has rejected what it calls an attempt by the United States “to use American visas as an instrument of pressure against South Africans.”
In a statement, the party stressed that South Africa’s land question can never be divorced from colonialism and racial dispossession and that “the country’s constitution expressly requires measures aimed at achieving equitable access to land and redressing the consequences of past racial discrimination.”
Washington, therefore, cannot decide what those measures are, as “land is greater than visa”, said the party.
The PAC also cautioned against collapsing the difference between racial persecution and programmes aimed at addressing the consequences of past racial discrimination.
The party condemned violence against any race or ethnic community, including Afrikaners.
The PAC acknowledged that while the United States has, as a sovereign country, the right to determine who enters it, “that right cannot become a veto over South Africa’s sovereign right to determine its own programme of transformation.”
“The land question will not disappear because powerful countries find it uncomfortable. It will be resolved. And it must be resolved by the people of South Africa, through their democratic institutions, their laws and their continuing struggle for social and economic justice,” reads the statement.
- The US has announced a visa restriction policy targeting some South African nationals involved in laws or policies related to land seizures, race-based discrimination, or incitement of violence against minorities.
- The Trump administration has criticised South Africa over land reform policies, racial inequality actions, and its genocide case against Israel at the ICC.
- South Africa denies discrimination or persecution against white people, with President Cyril Ramaphosa calling for global efforts to counter false stories of white persecution.
- The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania condemned the US visa restrictions as intimidation and asserted South Africa's sovereign right to determine its own land reform measures.
- The visa restriction policy does not specify any individuals by name and follows previous US actions including aid cuts, refugee offers to Afrikaners, and expelling South African diplomats.
