The US has imposed visa restrictions on some South African officials over their alleged involvement in “race-based discrimination” and “uncompensated land seizure.”
“The South African government has not adequately addressed the previously laid out concerns,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement announcing the restrictions on Tuesday.
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Relations between the two countries have been sour since President Donald Trump resumed office in January 2025. This action intensifies the rifts between the two states, which are often linked to Pretoria’s case against Israel, Washington’s primary ally, at the International Court of Justice over its genocidal attack on Gaza.
However, this is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to target the South African government over allegations that it is mistreating White citizens. President Cyril Ramaphosa has repeatedly denied this allegation.
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It is also the latest visa restriction on an African country. The US imposed visa bans on several African countries, including Nigeria, Gambia, Malawi, and Senegal, across a range of categories.
PREMIUM TIMES reports that Mr Trump initially accused South Africa of mistreating white South Africans in February 2025. He also claimed the group were being brutally murdered over their land ownership. He had also cut off funding to the country as a sanction. Many of those claims have been established to be false by independent observers.
The structure of land ownership in South Africa remains one of the last legacies of the apartheid system that continues to shape patterns of inequality and control of resources in the country more than three decades later.
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White South Africans comprise less than 10 per cent of the country’s population but own about 72 per cent of its agricultural land. The 1913 Native Lands Act made it illegal for Africans to acquire land outside the reserves, known as “homelands”.
Since the end of apartheid in 1994, the country has been making efforts to address historical disparities. However, the government’s efforts to speed up the process through expropriation drew the ire of certain figures. Among the critics is Elon Musk, Mr Trump’s close ally.
Since 2025, the US has prioritised the admission of White South Africans as refugees.
Mr Rubio, in his latest X post, said the US is “gravely concerned about racially motivated crime and government-sponsored discrimination occurring against the Afrikaners.”
He said South Africa’s race-based discriminatory legislation, threats of land expropriation without compensation, and incitement of racial violence through dehumanising chants have necessitated the new US policy.
“The South African people are being failed by a government that is destroying its economy through an obsessive pursuit of racial grievance against the Afrikaner minority.
“The South African government has consistently failed to address rural crime, violent and dehumanising rhetoric adequately, and race-based discriminatory policies against Afrikaners and other minority populations,” he said.
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The US, however, did not disclose which government officials were affected by the travel restriction, ahead of the next UN General Assembly scheduled for 22 September in New York.
It warned that the new visa restrictions are “only the first step in a series of escalatory measures that will show America’s firm resolve in this matter.”
South Africa’s previous effort to mend relations with the US has failed. President Ramaphosa’s visit to the White House last May, accompanied by a delegation that included white members of his government, only led to tense interaction during which Mr Trump accused Pretoria of genocide against white farmers.
Last year, Mr Trump also said he was disinviting South Africa from the 2026 G20 summit in Miami. The US also imposed a 30 per cent tariff on goods from the country in August.
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