The United States has imposed visa restrictions on South African officials and other individuals it accuses of promoting racial discrimination against the country’s white minority.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the restrictions on Tuesday, saying the South African government had failed to address Washington’s concerns.
Rubio said the policy would target people who promote “race-based discrimination, incite violence, or enable land confiscation without compensation” in South Africa.
He did not name the individuals affected by the restrictions.
“The South African government has not adequately addressed the previously laid out concerns,” Rubio said.
The latest move further worsens relations between Washington and Pretoria, which have been strained over land reform, racial inequality and other policy differences.
The Trump administration has accused South Africa of pursuing policies that discriminate against Afrikaners, descendants mainly of Dutch and French settlers.
South Africa has repeatedly rejected the allegations.
Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said Pretoria received the announcement with concern and accused groups supporting the US position of misrepresenting South Africa’s domestic policies.
The country’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation said the claims wrongly portrayed fringe groups as representatives of minorities and Afrikaners generally.
The US embassy in Pretoria said Washington believed dialogue with South Africa had run its course.
It also warned that the visa restrictions were only the beginning of further measures against Pretoria.
“This visa restriction policy is only the first step in a series of escalatory measures that will show America’s firm resolve in this matter,” the embassy said.
Rubio separately accused the South African government of pursuing what he described as “racial grievance against the Afrikaner minority”.
He said those responsible for the alleged discrimination had “no place in the United States”.
The dispute is partly linked to South Africa’s land reform policies.
President Cyril Ramaphosa signed legislation allowing the state to expropriate land in the public interest, including circumstances where compensation could be set at zero.
The law, however, requires authorities in most cases to first seek an agreement with property owners, while disputes can be taken to court.
South Africa says the legislation is intended to address racial inequalities created during apartheid, when the black majority was dispossessed of land.
The government maintains that the law does not allow arbitrary seizure of property.
Land ownership remains a sensitive issue, with most private farmland owned by white South Africans, who account for just over seven per cent of the country’s population.
Pretoria said it was its sovereign right to enact laws aimed at addressing centuries of racial injustice.
Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since Trump returned to office, with Washington cutting aid, expelling the South African ambassador and offering refugee status to Afrikaners.
Trump has also accused South Africa of persecuting white farmers and claimed that white South Africans face a “genocide”. Pretoria has repeatedly rejected the claims, saying they lack reliable evidence.
South Africa’s crime statistics do not show that white people face a greater risk of violent crime than other racial groups.
Efforts by Ramaphosa to improve relations have so far failed to resolve the dispute.
It could be recalled that DDM reports that in May last year, Ramaphosa visited the White House with a delegation that included white members of his coalition government and prominent South African golfers.
The meeting was marked by Trump’s allegations about violence against white farmers, which South Africa disputed.
The latest escalation comes after the US imposed a 30 per cent tariff on South African goods in August, the highest rate among sub-Saharan African countries.
The new visa restrictions were imposed under a provision of US immigration law that allows the secretary of state to bar foreign nationals whose entry is considered potentially damaging to US foreign policy interests.
