South Africa summons new US ambassador over 'undiplomatic remarks'

Pretoria summoned the new US ambassador on Wednesday to explain "undiplomatic remarks" about South African racial policies and court decisions, the foreign minister said.

The envoy, Brent Bozell, took up his post last month with bilateral ties fractured over a range of issues, from South Africa's genocide case against Israel, an ally of the United States, to President Donald Trump's disputed claims that white Afrikaners are being persecuted.

In his first public address on Tuesday, the new ambassador labelled an apartheid-era chant "Kill the Boer, kill the farmer" as "hate speech" and criticised policies meant to empower black South Africans.

"We have called in the ambassador of the United States, Ambassador Bozell, to explain his undiplomatic remarks," Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told journalists.

Criticises South African courts

Trump has used the chant to back his claims of a white genocide in South Africa, showing clips of it at a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa in the White House in May last year.

South African courts have ruled that the chant does not constitute hate speech and should be considered in the context of the struggle against white-minority rule that ended in 1994.

"I'm sorry, I don't care what your courts say, it's hate speech," Bozell said at Tuesday's meeting of business leaders.

The new envoy appeared to backtrack on Wednesday, saying on X: "I want to clarify that while my personal view – like that of many South Africans – is that 'Kill the Boer' constitutes hate speech, the US government respects the independence and findings of South Africa's judiciary."

'Not reverse racism'

Bozell also criticised South Africa's black economic empowerment policies in Tuesday's address, saying they could lead to disinvestment and comparing current policies with apartheid race laws.

He claimed there were 147 race laws against black South Africans under apartheid and roughly the same number now against whites. The claim is inaccurate.

In response, Lamola said: "We reiterate that broad-based black economic empowerment is not reverse racism, as regrettably insinuated by the ambassador."

"It is a fundamental instrument designed to address the structural imbalances of South Africa's unique history. It is a constitutional imperative that the South African government can and will never abandon," he said.

US envoy should not return South Africa to 'polarised' society: Lamola

Bozell "must not take us back to a polarised society along racial lines," Lamola added. "His role as a guest is to support us to build one nation."

At his October Senate hearing, Bozell said he would push Pretoria to end its genocide case against Israel and promote Trump's offer of refugee status to the white Afrikaner minority