Trump’s new envoy arrives in South Africa with relations frayed

A conservative media critic picked by President Donald Trump to be US ambassador to South Africa has arrived to take up his post, the US embassy said Tuesday, with bilateral relations fractured over a range of issues.

Washington and Pretoria are at odds over a series of international and domestic policies, from South Africa’s genocide case against Israel to Trump’s disputed claims that white Afrikaners are being persecuted.

Brent Bozell, 70, needs to present his credentials to President Cyril Ramaphosa before officially taking up his post.

“I’m confirming that he’s in (the) country,” a US embassy official told AFP.

Trump chose the right-wing Bozell for the job in March, soon after expelling South Africa’s ambassador on accusations that he was critical of Washington. Pretoria has yet to announce a successor.

Trump said at the time that Bozell “brings fearless tenacity, extraordinary experience, and vast knowledge to a nation that desperately needs it”.

Bozell is founder of the Media Research Center, a non-profit that says it works to “expose and counter the leftist bias of the national news media”.

– Policy clashes –

A strong defender of Israel, he said at his Senate confirmation hearing in October that he would push Pretoria to end its genocide case.

South Africa’s government filed the case with the International Court of Justice in 2023, alleging that Israel’s war on Gaza — which followed the attack by militants from Palestinian group Hamas — breached the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention. Israel has denied that accusation.

Bozell also told the Senators: “I will communicate our objections to South Africa’s geostrategic drift from non-alignment toward our competitors, including Russia, China and Iran.”

He said he would promote Trump’s offer of refugee status to the white Afrikaans minority, several hundred of whom are believed to have taken up the invitation since it was extended last May.

The US administration has claimed that Afrikaners — descendants of the early Dutch settlers — are victims of discrimination and even “genocide” under the post-apartheid government, which Pretoria strongly rejects.

“It is essential to actively engage on areas of disagreement while seeking opportunities to foster mutual benefit,” Bozell said.

The United States is South Africa’s second-biggest trading partner by country after China.

As bilateral relations floundered, Washington in August imposed 30-percent tariffs on South African exports to the United States, raising fears of major jobs losses in the local agriculture, automobile and textile sectors.

Pretoria said it was in negotiations with Washington for a better deal, but it has also signed a duty-free agreement with China, its biggest trade partner.

A low point in the deteriorating relationship was the Trump administration’s boycott of the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November, after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said South Africa’s presidency of the forum had an “anti-American” agenda.

US officials said South Africa would not be invited to the US hosting of the group of leading economies this year.

South Africa is the United States’ largest trading partner on the African continent with more than 500 US businesses and 30,000 US citizens based in the country.

Washington’s previous ambassador, Reuben Brigety, resigned in November 2024, just before Trump took office.

AFP

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