by MTHULISI SIBANDA
Africa Editor
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – RELATIONS between the United States and South Africa have deteriorated.
This follows the American administration imposing a new visa restriction policy targeting individuals it alleges are enacting or enabling policies that promote race-based discrimination, incite violence or facilitate land confiscation without compensation.
Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, announced the move, in what is a continuation of a trend that critics argue is based on a propaganda-fuelled policy against South Africa by the Donald Trump administration since he returned to the White House at the beginning of 2025.
“Those responsible for these injustices have no place in the United States,” Rubio stated on Tuesday night, South African time.
He stated that the US remained “gravely concerned about racially motivated crime and government-sponsored discrimination occurring against the Afrikaners and other minority populations in South Africa, including race-based discriminatory legislation, threats of land expropriation without compensation, and incitement of racial violence through dehumanising chants and slogans.”
Rubio claimed that the South African government of President Cyril Ramaphosa had not adequately addressed the so-called concerns outlined.
Hence, the new visa restriction policy under the Immigration and Nationality Act, “targeting foreign nationals who are responsible for, or complicit in, the enactment or implementation of laws or policies that enable uncompensated land seizures, race-based discrimination, and/or the incitement of imminent violence against members of minority ethnic or racial groups in South Africa.”
“The United States will not allow such behaviour to go unchecked,” Rubio stated.
“These actions directly undermine peace, economic stability, and the rule of law, and they are incompatible with the pillars of America’s foreign policy.”
Statistics indicate that, as of now, more than 13 000 white South Africans, primarily Afrikaners, have relocated to the US under a fast-tracked refugee programme initiated by the Trump administration.
A small number of resettled Afrikaner refugees have returned to South Africa, immediately forfeiting their US refugee status.
This challenges allegations of a “white genocide” in South Africa.
– CAJ News