JOHANNESBURG – The new US ambassador to South Africa has been summoned to explain his criticism of the country's foreign minister, the country's foreign minister said on Wednesday, as a diplomatic rift continues over foreign policy that the Trump administration calls anti-American and anti-white domestic policies.
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 relations with Iran and its affirmative action laws, which advance opportunities for black people ahead of other races.
The rift between former allies has widened since President Donald Trump returned to office. Relations have reached their lowest level 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, played his role in Pretoria last month.
In his first detailed public comments on US–South Africa relations since arriving, Bozell said South Africa should change some of its affirmative action laws that were designed to address the inequities of South Africa's decades of racial segregation under apartheid. He compared the laws to the 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 certain circumstances.
Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told a news conference, “While South Africa welcomes active public diplomacy and the strengthening of bilateral relations, we stress that such interactions must remain in line with established diplomatic etiquette and international protocol.” “In this regard, we have called on the Ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Bozell, to clarify his undiplomatic comments.”
Foreign Ministry Director General Zane Dangar said Bozel met with South African officials on Tuesday and the ambassador “apologized and expressed regret.”
There was no immediate comment from the US government.
Trump's central claim 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 refuted the Trump administration's claims.
Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in a White House meeting last year over the claims, underscoring the strained relationship.
Bozell walked back a comment early Wednesday. At a meeting of business leaders, he criticized a South African court decision, which decided that an apartheid-era slogan repeated by a far-left political party was not hate speech, despite it containing the phrase “kill the Boers”. Boer refers to a white farmer in South Africa.
The Trump administration has termed the chant as anti-white hate speech. Bozell reiterated the same stance Tuesday: “I'm sorry, I don't care what your courts say, this is hate speech.” He said in an X post on Wednesday that his comments reflected his personal views and that “the U.S. government respects the independence and findings of the South African judiciary.”
The Trump administration has taken other extraordinary steps against South Africa, including expelling its ambassador to Washington last year and barring South Africa from Group of 20 meetings in the US this year.