The US Ambassador is Right About South Africa

South Africans should not resent being told hard truths that our own government refuses to face. We should resent that it took a foreign ambassador to say them.

Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash

The new United States Ambassador to South Africa, Leo Brent Bozell III, has made it clear that the US wants a friendly and prosperous relationship with South Africa.This goal is at serious risk of being jeopardised by Pretoria’s repeatedly malicious actions.

Since arriving in South Africa, Bozell has been quite diplomatic. If you read only the statements from anti-Western organisations such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the Media Review Network (MRN) and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), you would be led to think that he’d declared war on South Africa.

But in truth he expressed the US’s desire to maintain friendly relations with South Africa, and that Washington values trade and commercial partnerships with Pretoria.

The main point of contention has been that Bozell has condemned the government’s refusal to treat the “Kill the Boer” song as hate speech. For reasonable readers, it might come as a shock that South African courts do not consider a song openly calling for violence against a racial minority as hate speech.

Even so, hate speech is defined in South African law as expression based on a protected characteristic (such as race) that a reasonable person would understand as promoting or expressing hatred towards a person or group, in a manner that is harmful or incites harm, rather than merely rude, offensive, or insulting.

It is clear to any reasonable person that “Kill the Boer” is hate speech. Yet politics and the dominance of Afro-Marxist nationalists in the halls of power have protected the song and its singers from prosecution.

Bozell is completely right to call out South Africa’s judiciary for allowing Kill the Boer to be sung at political rallies, by political parties that repeatedly call for the forced expulsion of people based on race.

Yet the responses on X and by anti-Western organisations have decried Bozell’s comments as “undermining South Africa’s judiciary,” and attacking South African sovereignty.

DIRCO’s decision to summon Bozell only reinforced the impression of a government more interested in performative outrage than serious diplomacy. Instead of responding substantively to the concerns raised by Washington, Pretoria chose escalation. In doing so, it may have overplayed its hand and further strained a relationship that South Africa can ill afford to damage.

These responses are in no way appropriate. Any individual is allowed to have an opinion about a ruling – even if that opinion goes against the courts. Additionally, Bozell’s comments in no way deprive the South African government of its ability to maintain control over the country – the definition of sovereignty.

Rather, these kneejerk responses are just another case of supporters of a crackpot regime hiding behind a word they don’t understand – sovereignty. War criminals throughout the world have hidden behind the term to try to protect themselves from accountability. Yet sovereignty isn’t a catch-all-term that allows governments carte blanche to do what they want.

When it comes to international relations, sovereignty is a two way street. If we want to deal with the Americans and benefit from investment and trade, then we need to cooperate with them.

As citizens of South Africa, we shouldn’t be blindly defending our government in this debacle. What matters is what’s best for the people of South Africa. And friendly relations and trade with the US is of tantamount importance to the well-being of every South African.

The US is our most lucrative trade partner, a major investor, and a major source of jobs. And this is while our government repeatedly alienates its government. Imagine if we had friendly relations with Washington!

Bozell wants friendly relations between the US and South Africa. According to Bozell US President Trump stated that South Africa is one of the top 10 investment opportunities for US firms. And this much is true. Major tech giants are investing in South Africa, and we are by far the biggest trade partner for the US in sub-Saharan Africa. We could and should be taking advantage of this relationship.

Bozell envisions doubling the US companies operating in South Africa from 500 to 1000 and increasing the jobs these firms provide from the current 250,000 to 500,000.

This, plus other investment and increased trade, would boost our economic growth to unprecedented levels. South Africans need this infusion of wealth into our faltering economy.

To maintain US relations, Bozell reminded the country that over a year ago, the South African government was issued with five demands. These demands were hidden for months from South African citizens and the government refused to engage on them. To this day, they’re still silent about the demands.

None of these demands are unreasonable or constitute violations of our sovereignty. In fact, it’s pretty good advice that benefits South Africans – not the US.

The first demand is that the government starts taking rural crime and fark attacks seriously. It’s frankly embarrassing that we need a foreign government to tell us something the government should be doing already.

Second: the US wants the ANC to condemn and ban the “Kill the Boer” song. The fact that the ANC and President Cyril Ramaphosa refuse to even disavow the song shows their implicit support for its genocidal statement.

Third: Expropriation Without Compensation (EWC) must not happen and property rights must be respected. This should go without saying. Property rights are the bedrock of a civilised society.

The final demand is that South Africa stop requiring US firms to comply with BEE. I have read in some places that the demand has expanded to scrapping BEE altogether. BEE is likely the most destructive piece of legislation in the country; abolishing it would help the country immeasurably.

Bozell has also expressed that South Africa must stop antagonising the US on the world stage – something that the response to his statements proves the ANC is not ready to comply with anytime soon.

He reaffirmed that the US doesn’t want South Africa to become a satellite of the US. He doesn’t even expect South Africa to align with the US. All he asks for is that South Africa stops aligning with regimes openly opposing the US. As DIRCO keeps stating that it is non-aligned, this shouldn’t be too hard. But overtly anti-US and pro-New Axis policies by the government has made it clear where its loyalties lie.

In the end, Bozell’s message is not a threat to South Africa, but a warning and an opportunity. The US is telling us, plainly, that South Africa can either continue down a path of ideological hostility, racial incitement, anti-investment policy, and diplomatic self-sabotage, or it can choose growth, stability, and mutually beneficial cooperation.

South Africans should not resent being told hard truths that our own government refuses to face. We should resent that it took a foreign ambassador to say them.

If Pretoria truly cared about sovereignty, prosperity, and the well-being of its people, it would stop insulting one of our most important partners and start fixing the policies that are driving away investment, undermining property rights, and poisoning our international standing. Bozell is right about South Africa. The real question is whether South Africa is prepared to be right about itself.

Nicholas Woode-Smith is the Managing Editor of the Rational Standard and a senior associate of the Free Market Foundation. He writes in his personal capacity. You can follow him on X: @NWoodeSmith.