South Africa issued a diplomatic protest to the new US ambassador to Pretoria over his recent criticism of the government, ratcheting up tensions between the two countries.
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation conveyed the démarche to Leo Brent Bozell on Wednesday, with Ronald Lamola, South Africa’s foreign minister, confirming the move.
“We have called in the ambassador of the United States, Ambassador Bozell, to explain his undiplomatic remarks,” Lamola told a media briefing.
Relations between South Africa and the US have deteriorated sharply since Donald Trump’s return to the White House last year.
The American president has falsely accused Pretoria of subjecting White farmers to a genocide and seizing their land, denounced its relations with Iran and Hamas, and rejected its Black economic-empowerment policies.
Bozell has doubled down on the criticism.
“We reiterate that broad-based Black economic empowerment is not reverse racism, as regrettably insinuated by the ambassador,” Lamola said.
“It is a fundamental instrument designed to address the structural imbalances of South Africa’s unique history.”
“As we cannot tell President Trump how to deal with localisation in the US, he also can’t tell us how to deal with our domestic issues of sovereignty.”
Zane Dangor, the director-general of South Africa’s international relations department, said Bozell later expressed regret over his public comments and reaffirmed his commitment to a constructive engagement.
US Embassy spokesman Rubani Trimiew didn’t answer calls or respond to a request for comment sent by text message.
Bozell, 70, was a controversial choice for ambassador, having opposed efforts by the African National Congress — the biggest political party in the coalition government led by President Cyril Ramaphosa — to overturn apartheid in the 1980s.
The ambassador warned on Tuesday that Trump is running out of patience with Pretoria over its failure to address Washington’s demands for changes to its domestic and foreign policies.
He also criticised a Constitutional Court ruling last year that found the anti-apartheid Kill the Boer chant isn’t hate speech, and was quoted as saying: “I’m sorry, I don’t care what your courts say. It’s hate speech.”
Bozell on Wednesday issued a brief statement on X clarifying that while it’s his personal view that the chant is hate speech, “the US government respects the independence and findings of South Africa’s judiciary.”
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula responded to Bozell’s comments on X, saying “South Africa’s international-relations policy will not be dictated to by anyone else but South Africans and their government.”
It’s the second time South Africa has demarched a US envoy. Three years ago, the authorities summoned Bozell’s predecessor, Reuben Brigety, after he publicly accused Pretoria of supplying weapons to Russia.
The US is South Africa’s biggest trade partner after China.
