The South African government summoned the new US ambassador, Brent Bozell, on Wednesday (11) to explain “undiplomatic comments” about South Africa’s racial policies and court decisions, according to Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola.
The diplomat took office last month, with bilateral relations already strained by a series of issues, from South Africa’s lawsuit against US ally Israel for alleged genocide to controversies raised by President Donald Trump, who claimed that white Afrikaners are being persecuted.
In his first public speech on Tuesday, the new ambassador described a controversial slogan from the apartheid era, “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer,” as hate speech and criticized policies aimed at empowering black South Africans.
“We have summoned Brent Bozell to explain his undiplomatic comments,” said Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola.
The country’s courts have ruled that the slogan does not constitute hate speech and should be analyzed in the context of the liberation struggle against the brutal system of white minority rule.
“I’m sorry, I don’t care what your courts say, this is hate speech,” Bozell said at the meeting with business leaders.
On Wednesday, he appeared to backtrack, stating on social media: “I want to clarify that while my personal opinion—like that of many South Africans—is that ‘kill the Boer’ constitutes hate speech, the U.S. government respects the independence and decisions of the South African judicial system.”
Trump has used the slogan to support his baseless allegations of genocide of whites in South Africa. At a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House in May last year, Trump showed clips of an opposition politician chanting the slogan.
Bozell also criticized black economic empowerment policies, saying they had led to “stagnation” that hurt the economy.
In response, Lamola said: “We reiterate that broad-based black economic empowerment is not reverse racism, as unfortunately insinuated by the ambassador. It is a fundamental tool designed to correct the structural imbalances of South Africa’s unique history. It is a constitutional imperative that the South African government cannot and will never abandon.”
Source: ZimLive
