The South African government has called in the US ambassador to “explain his undiplomatic conduct” for the third time since he arrived nine months ago, a foreign ministry official said Wednesday.
Conservative envoy Brent Bozell took up his post in February with bilateral ties fractured over a range of issues, from South Africa’s genocide case against US ally Israel to President Donald Trump’s disputed claims that white Afrikaners are being persecuted.
Bozell was summoned to the foreign ministry on Tuesday, the day he published a blistering opinion piece accusing the government of “hostility” and after a series of critical interviews with local media.
“He was called in to explain his undiplomatic conduct,” a senior foreign ministry official told AFP, without saying what prompted the reprimand.
“It was the third demarche since he started his duties nine months ago. This is a record,” the official said.
The two countries have clashed over a range of policies including South African efforts to redress stark inequalities that black people still face 30 years after the end of white-minority rule.
They include laws on black empowerment in business and the use and ownership of land, which largely remains in white hands.
Washington in mid-September announced restrictions on visas for South Africans who promote “race-based discrimination, incite violence, or enable land confiscation without compensation in South Africa” — all issues that are disputed between the two countries.
‘Hostility’
Bilateral ties nosedived after Trump took over, with the US leader cutting aid, expelling the South African ambassador and berating President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office over discredited claims of a “white genocide”.
The United States last year launched a special programme to take in thousands of white Afrikaners who claim to be targets of persecution and rural crime in South Africa.
Differences between the two nations are “a subject of ongoing discussions”, the foreign ministry official said.
“There is commitment from both sides to resolve the outstanding matters.”
However, in an opinion piece published Tuesday on the US embassy website, Bozell said: “At this point we find it a useless proposition to continue with endless dialogue leading nowhere.”
The ambassador said Washington “had run out of patience” with Pretoria because it had failed to respond adequately to certain of its demands.
These included that Ramaphosa condemn the anti-apartheid chant “Kill the Boer”, taken to refer to the minority white Afrikaner population, that critics say is a call to violence.
The chant is controversial in South Africa and used rarely by a minority, radical left-wing group, but the courts have ruled it does not constitute hate speech and should be considered in the context of the struggle against white-minority rule.
Bozell was first summoned by the government in March, just three weeks after taking up his post, after comments over the same issue.
The US government’s other “asks” were that rural crime in South Africa is designated a priority and alternatives to black equity laws in business are extended to the telecommunications and mining industries, he wrote.
South Africa has repeatedly said it would not bow to US attempts to interfere with its sovereign right to manage its internal affairs.
“The South African government does not want a constructive relationship with the United States,” Bozell said. “We eagerly hope the South African government will rethink this hostility.”
AFP
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