The new U.S. ambassador to South Africa has been summoned to explain his criticism, the country's foreign minister said Wednesday, as a diplomatic rift continues over foreign policy that the Trump administration describes as anti-American and domestic policies it calls anti-white.
Ambassador Leo Brent Bozell III was summoned after speaking at a meeting of business leaders on Tuesday, where he challenged the South African government over its diplomatic ties with Iran and its affirmative action laws that advance opportunities for Black people ahead of other races.
The rift has grown between the former allies since President Donald Trump returned to office. Ties have plunged to their lowest point since the end of apartheid, or white minority rule, in 1994. Trump has been critical of South Africa’s Black-led government.
Bozell, a conservative activist appointed by Trump, took up his role in Pretoria last month.
In his first detailed public comments on U.S.-South Africa ties since arriving, Bozell said South Africa should change some of its affirmative action laws that were designed to redress the inequalities of South Africa's decades of racial segregation under apartheid. He compared the laws to race laws that oppressed Black people during apartheid.
Bozell also called for changing a land law that allows the South African government to expropriate land without compensation in some circumstances.
“While South Africa welcomes active public diplomacy and the strengthening of bilateral ties, we emphasize that such engagements must remain consistent with established diplomatic etiquette and international protocols,” Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told a press conference. “In this regard, we have called in the ambassador of the United States, Ambassador Bozell, to explain his undiplomatic remarks.”
Foreign ministry director-general Zane Dangor said Bozell met with South African officials and the ambassador “apologized and expressed regret.”
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. government.
Trump’s central allegation against the South African government is his baseless claim that minority white farmers are being targeted in a campaign of violence and killings. Even some conservative white Afrikaner groups denied the Trump administration’s claims.
Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with those claims at a dramatic White House meeting last year that underlined the strained relationship.
Bozell did backtrack on one comment earlier Wednesday. At the meeting of business leaders, he criticized a South African court ruling that decided an apartheid-era chant repeated by a far-left opposition political party was not hate speech, despite it having the phrase “kill the Boer.” Boer refers to a white farmer in South Africa.
The Trump administration has branded the chant as anti-white hate speech. Bozell reiterated that view Tuesday: “I am sorry, I don’t care what your courts say, it’s hate speech.” He said in an X post Wednesday his comment reflected his personal view and “the U.S. government respects the independence and findings of South Africa’s judiciary.”
The Trump administration has taken other extraordinary steps against South Africa — its biggest trading partner in Africa — including expelling its ambassador to Washington last year and barring South Africa from meetings of the Group of 20 rich and developing nations in the U.S. this year.
Bozell said he hadn't come to “to pick a fight” but the U.S. had presented five requests to the South African government around a year ago to improve ties: distance itself from Iran, change parts of its affirmative action laws affecting American companies operating in South Africa, outlaw any expropriation of land without compensation, declare rural crime a priority and publicly condemn the “kill the Boer” chant.
Bozell said the U.S. was frustrated it had not received any reply from South Africa on those requests.
