The administration of Donald Trump has announced visa restrictions for certain South African citizens, citing allegations of racial discrimination against the white Afrikaner minority by the country’s government. The released statement did not name specific individuals barred from entering the United States.
During his second term, Donald Trump has repeatedly alleged the existence of a «white genocide» in South Africa and criticized the country’s affirmative action policies. Since the beginning of last year, the United States has reduced aid to South Africa, excluded it from this year’s G20 summit in Miami, and launched a refugee resettlement program for Afrikaners and other racial minorities, while simultaneously scaling back refugee and asylum programs for people fleeing war and persecution.
Official statements and measures
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused the South African government in an X post of destroying the economy through an «obsessive pursuit of racial claims» regarding Afrikaners. He stated that the country’s authorities have failed to properly address rural crime, violent and derogatory rhetoric, and discriminatory policies based on race against Afrikaners and other minorities. Marco Rubio added that the visa restrictions will apply to foreign nationals who implement or enable policies that promote racial discrimination, incite violence, or create conditions for land seizure without compensation in South Africa.
United States Ambassador to South Africa Leo Brent Bozell III stated that the time for «dialogue» has run out, calling the new visa restrictions «the first step in a series of escalatory measures.» Representatives of the South African president’s office and the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Context of land policy and social relations
Since Nelson Mandela took office in 1994, the country’s governments have sought to address racial inequality left over from the apartheid regime, particularly through policies of economic empowerment for the Black population and land acquisition for redistribution. According to an article published in 2023 in the Review of Political Economy journal, white residents of the country hold approximately 20 times more wealth than the Black population.
Although South Africa passed a law last year that allows the government to seize land without compensation under certain circumstances, such as when it is abandoned or held solely for speculation, large-scale land expropriation is not occurring in the country. Many white South Africans who consider themselves victims of discrimination point to the repeated use of the apartheid-era slogan «Kill the Boer» by opposition leader Julius Malema. Donald Trump showed a video featuring this slogan during a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office last year. The ruling African National Congress has distanced itself from the slogan, and South African courts have ruled that it should not be understood literally and therefore does not constitute hate speech.
Source: The Guardian
