U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a new visa restriction policy on Monday targeting South African officials accused of involvement in race-based discrimination and uncompensated land seizures, the latest move in an escalating dispute between Washington and Pretoria.
Rubio said the restrictions would apply to foreign nationals found to be responsible for, or complicit in, enacting or enforcing laws that permit uncompensated land expropriation, enable discrimination on the basis of race, or incite imminent violence against minority groups.
In a statement, Rubio said Washington remained “gravely concerned” about what it described as racially motivated crime and government-sponsored discrimination against Afrikaners and other minority communities in South Africa, citing discriminatory legislation, threats of uncompensated land seizures, and rhetoric he characterized as inciting racial violence.
Rubio said the South African government had failed to adequately address concerns the U.S. had previously raised, prompting the new policy.
The move builds on a series of actions the Trump administration has taken against Pretoria since earlier this year, when the president signed an executive order prioritizing the admission of white South Africans into the U.S. refugee program, citing alleged persecution of Afrikaner communities. By late June, more than 7,700 Afrikaners had been admitted to the United States under the initiative, even as refugee admissions from other parts of the world were largely suspended.
South African officials have repeatedly denied the allegations, saying Afrikaners are not subject to systematic racial persecution and describing U.S. criticism as based on misinformation.
The dispute has strained diplomatic relations between the two countries in recent months, with a South African envoy to Washington reportedly denied a visa earlier this year amid broader tensions over trade tariffs, aid reductions, and disagreements over South Africa’s foreign policy positioning, including its ties to Russia.
