South Africa is firing back at the United States after the State Department imposed new visa restrictions on foreign nationals involved in alleged racial discrimination against the African country’s white minority.
South Africa’s foreign ministry maintained the nation’s own sovereignty and accused the U.S. of relying on information from “fringe groups” meant to mischaracterize its domestic policies.
“We maintain that challenges in our bilateral relations with the USA can only be resolved by constructive engagement through state actors on both sides of the diplomatic channel, not unilateral acts,” the ministry said on Wednesday.
One day earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the Trump administration’s expanded visa restriction policy toward South Africa. The move is rooted in Section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which prevents noncitizens from entering the U.S. or obtaining lawful permanent resident status.
The visa policy targets foreign nationals involved 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,” according to the State Department.
“The United States will not allow such behavior to go unchecked,” Rubio said in a statement on Tuesday. “These actions directly undermine peace, economic stability, and the rule of law, and they are incompatible with the pillars of America’s foreign policy. We once again strongly urge the South African government to quickly address these egregious actions.”
L. Brent Bozell III, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, teased that the visa restrictions are just the beginning.
“As has been made absolutely clear, the time for endless ‘dialogue’ has run its course. No more,” Bozell said on X. “America has just so much patience. 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. As a result, the consequences, as I’ve attempted time and again to express, are necessarily going to be severe. This visa restriction policy is only the first step in a series of escalatory measures that will show America’s firm resolve in this matter.”
President Donald Trump started taking an aggressive stance against the South African government last year over the country’s alleged discrimination against white Afrikaners. The ethnic group, made up of descendants of European settlers, was the driving force behind apartheid in South Africa until the race-based system collapsed with the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela.
Since then, the South African government has tried to make up for the inequalities that persisted following the end of apartheid. South Africa has the highest income inequality in the world.
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The administration’s escalation against South Africa comes a week before the foreign country’s planned participation in the United Nations General Assembly. South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola was en route to the U.S. on Wednesday, according to the ministry.
A South African representative will not be present at the G20 summit in Miami in December after Trump declined to invite South Africa, even though the nation is a founding member of the international bloc. The U.S. did not participate in the G20 Johannesburg summit last year because of the administration’s stance on South Africa’s treatment of its white citizens, who account for about 7% of the African nation’s total population.