US targets South Africans with new visa ban

US targets South Africans with new visa ban WASHINGTON — The United States has announced visa restrictions targeting South African officials and others accused by Washington of enacting or enabling race-based discrimination, inciting violence or pursuing land confiscation without compensation against Afrikaners and other minorities. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the measures under […]

US targets South Africans with new visa ban

WASHINGTON — The United States has announced visa restrictions targeting South African officials and others accused by Washington of enacting or enabling race-based discrimination, inciting violence or pursuing land confiscation without compensation against Afrikaners and other minorities.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the measures under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows Washington to restrict entry by foreign nationals deemed to have potentially serious adverse consequences for US foreign policy.

The policy targets people Washington says are responsible for, or complicit in, implementing laws or policies involving uncompensated land seizures, racial discrimination or incitement of imminent violence against minority groups.

However, the US did not publicly name the individuals affected.

The move comes amid a growing diplomatic dispute between Washington and Pretoria, with South Africa’s land reform programme at the centre of tensions.

South Africa’s Expropriation Act, signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2025, permits the state to expropriate property in the public interest and, in certain circumstances, provide nil compensation.

Pretoria insists the law does not authorise arbitrary land seizures and says its land reform programme is aimed at addressing the legacy of apartheid and extreme inequality in land ownership.

The Trump administration has repeatedly accused South Africa of failing to protect Afrikaners from discrimination and has particularly criticised the country’s approach to land reform

Pretoria has rejected allegations of systematic persecution of Afrikaners and says claims that the government is confiscating white-owned farms are false.

The latest visa restrictions represent a further escalation in the increasingly tense relationship between the two countries.