The threat of visa bans against South Africans involved in land reform and race-based economic policies, announced last week by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has brought months of bitter friction out into the open.
The announcement, issued just days after South African business leaders wrapped up high-level engagements in Baltimore alongside the Springboks' Test match against the All Blacks, marks a sharp escalation in bilateral tensions.
While the US is yet to name specific individuals targeted by the restrictions, Rubio stated that the measures would target those deemed responsible for, or complicit in, “race-based discrimination, inciting violence, or enabling land confiscation without compensation in South Africa.”
According to Rubio, the policy applies broadly to anyone enacting or enforcing laws that facilitate uncompensated land seizures, racial discrimination, or imminent violence against minority groups.
The escalating dispute comes despite Pretoria appointing veteran political negotiator Roelf Meyer as ambassador to the US to mediate relations, following South Africa’s exclusion from the US-hosted G20 Summit set for December, a sharp signal of the country's growing isolation.
Dirco responds
Asked about the restrictions, Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) ministerial spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said that while South Africa respects that the US may hold different views regarding particular measures, the country remains committed to addressing challenges through constitutional institutions, democratic processes, and the rule of law.
“The announcement once again aligns with the mischaracterisation of South Africa’s domestic policies by fringe groups who wrongly portray themselves as representatives of ‘minorities’ and Afrikaners in general,” Phiri said.
“We reiterate that healing the divisions of the past and establishing a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights is a constitutional imperative. We maintain that challenges in our bilateral relations with the US can only be resolved by constructive engagement through state actors on both sides of the diplomatic channel, not unilateral acts.”
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said the ruling party's position remained firm.
“We are on record as having condemned (the US) for bullying South Africa and misinforming and disinforming by suggesting there are race laws and a genocide,” she said.
'An attack on sovereignty'
MK Party spokesperson Sifiso Mahlangu condemned the sanctions as a direct attack on sovereignty.
“This is not an ordinary immigration measure. It is a hostile political intervention aimed at intimidating South African leaders, legislators and citizens who support lawful land restitution and economic transformation,” Mahlangu said.
“The MK Party calls upon the government to lodge a formal diplomatic protest, demand the policy's withdrawal, and secure guarantees of full G20 participation. South Africa must also accelerate trade and investment through BRICS, Africa and the Global South, while deepening relations with China.”
DA spokesperson on international relations and cooperation Ryan Smith said that while the party respects national sovereignty, many ANC policies cited by the US have failed the South African public long before the Trump administration.
“In early August this year, the DA approached the Constitutional Court to have the Expropriation Act overturned as a procedurally flawed piece of legislation and one which remains incompatible with the right to private property as outlined in Section 25 of the Constitution,” Smith said.
“In May this year, the DA introduced the Economic Inclusion for All Bill to Parliament as a credible alternative to the ANC’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act.
“We believe that economic justice can and must be achieved by legislation that removes the race-based criteria for access to opportunity in South Africa that the ANC has only systemically abused over decades to enrich itself.”
US relationship critical
Dr Stavros Nicolaou, Aspen Pharmacare's senior executive for strategic trade development, who was part of the business delegation that travelled to Baltimore, stressed the need for pragmatic engagement.
“I think we recognise as business, and as government does, that the US relationship is critical both from an investment, employment and trade perspective. Despite setbacks, we have to keep focus on recalibration,” Nicolaou said.
Speaker of Parliament Thoko Didiza noted that while the full extent of the restrictions remains unclear, executive-level diplomatic channels remain open.
“I hope that at an executive level they would be finding each other on what the causal issues are that have made the US government take the position they have taken, but also clarifying where clarity needs to be given,” Didiza said.
Dr Kingsley Makhubela, former diplomat and director at strategic consulting business RiskRecon, noted that bilateral tensions have built steadily since a 2024 US congressional bill called for a formal review of relations.
“When Trump came in, he accelerated that process, given the fact that across the political divide in the House, there was an agreement,” Makhubela said, adding that broader geostrategic interests – such as naval access along the Cape Sea Route – are quietly driving Washington’s pressure tactics.
“In a multipolar world, some of the issues that I have seen is that you’re starting to see geographic location being used as a projection of power.”
Prof André Duvenhage, a political scientist at North-West University, noted that Pretoria’s core transformation policies create an impasse in negotiations.
“The South African reaction in this regard, in theory, is we negotiate.
“But when they go to the negotiation table, a lot of these things, among them the BEE policies, are non-negotiables.
“So, in that sense, the relationship has become problematic,” he said.
Dr Noluthando Phungula, an international relations expert from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, concluded that the move signals a broader pressure campaign that demands economic diversification.
“The latest visa sanctions speak to a deteriorating diplomatic relationship that is marked by strategic disagreements,” Phungula said.
“This is a wake-up call for SA to diversify and deepen economic ties with other partners to reduce vulnerability.”
ntsikelelo.qoyo@nationalmg.co.za