US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a new policy to restrict visas from South African officials alleged to be involved in “race-based discrimination” and “uncompensated land seizures.”
It is the latest action by the Trump administration to target the South African government for allegations that it is mistreating White South Africans, which the government has denied. At the same time, the US has prioritized the admission of White South Africans to the US as refugees.
“The United States remains 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 dehumanizing chants and slogans,” Rubio said in a statement.
Weeks into his second term, President Donald Trump announced that nearly all refugees admitted to the United States would be White South Africans, radically reshaping a decades-long program that had largely serviced people fleeing war, persecution or other dangers.
By late June of this year, the US has admitted more than 7,700 Afrikaners while largely shuttering the country’s refugee program for the rest of the world.
“The South African government has not adequately addressed the previously laid out concerns and so today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy … 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,” Rubio added in Tuesday’s statement.
“The United States will not allow such behavior to go unchecked. These actions directly undermine peace, economic stability, and the rule of law, and they are incompatible with the pillars of America’s foreign policy,” Rubio said, adding that they “once again strongly urge the South African government to quickly address these egregious actions.”
The administration has alleged that White farmers in the country are being discriminated against under land reform policies that South Africa’s government says are necessary to remedy the legacy of apartheid.
Last year, in a meeting with South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, Trump screened a video he claimed provided evidence for his false suggestion that White South Africans are being subjected to persecution and “genocide.”
CNN has investigated the claims of White “genocide” in South Africa and found no evidence to back them up.
“What you saw in the speeches that were being made — that is not government policy. We have a multiparty democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves,” Ramaphosa said after the video. “Our government policy is completely, completely against what he was saying.”
By CNN
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