View noticesUS tightens visa rules for South Africans
The United States on Tuesday unveiled new visa restrictions targeting South Africans, the latest escalation in a diplomatic rift that has deepened since President Donald Trump began attacking the country's post-apartheid redress policies.
Trump has repeatedly condemned South Africa's land and employment legislation, which is designed to address inequalities that black South Africans still face three decades after the end of apartheid, ANA reports.
In 2025, he confronted President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office over widely discredited allegations of a “white genocide” taking place in the country.
He has since imposed steep tariffs on South African goods and stayed away from a G20 summit held in Johannesburg.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the South African government was pursuing racial grievance at the expense of its own economy.
“As President Trump has made clear, 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,” Rubio said, adding that the new visa measures would apply to those who promote “race-based discrimination, incite violence, or enable land confiscation without compensation in South Africa”.
No individuals were named as targets of the restrictions in the announcement.
Relations between Washington and Pretoria have deteriorated sharply since Trump returned to office last year.
His administration has cut aid to South Africa, expelled the country's ambassador to the US, and offered what it called “refuge” to white South Africans it says are fleeing persecution.
Although Trump has taken a broadly restrictive approach to immigration, he has simultaneously overseen a dedicated programme allowing thousands of Afrikaners to resettle in the United States.
South Africa, for its part, said last month it intended to offer Washington a “generous” new trade deal in an effort to head off punishing tariffs that could deepen job losses in a country already grappling with severe unemployment.