Pretoria summoned the new US ambassador on Wednesday to clarify on “undiplomatic comments” about South African racial policies and court rulings, the foreign minister said.
Brent Bozell took up his post last month as bilateral relations deteriorated over a range of issues, from South Africa's genocide case against US ally Israel to President Donald Trump's controversial claims that white Africans are being persecuted.
In his first public address on Tuesday, the new ambassador branded the controversial apartheid-era slogan “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer” as “hate speech” and criticized policies designed to empower black South Africans.
Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told reporters, “We have called on the Ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Bozel, to clarify his undiplomatic comments.”
South African courts have ruled that the slogan does not constitute hate speech and should be considered in the context of the liberation struggle against the brutal system of white-minority rule.
“I'm sorry, I don't care what your courts say, this is hate speech,” Bozell said at a meeting of business leaders Tuesday.
He appeared to back down on Wednesday, saying on X: “I want to make it clear that my personal view – like that of many South Africans – is that while 'Kill the Boer' is hate speech, the US government respects the independence and findings of the South African judiciary.”
Trump has used this slogan to support his baseless claims of white genocide in South Africa. At a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House in May last year, Trump had shown clips of an opposition politician shouting slogans.
Bozell also criticized South Africa's black economic empowerment policies, saying they led to “stalemate” that harmed the economy.
In response, Lamola said: “We reiterate that broad-based black economic empowerment is not reverse racism as the Ambassador regrettably stated.”
He said, “It is a fundamental tool designed to address the structural imbalances of South Africa's unique history. It is a constitutional imperative that the South African government can never abandon.”