South Africa slams planned US visa curbs over alleged racial discrimination

Trump administration falling for misinformation from ‘fringe groups’ alleging discrimination against white Afrikaners.

Ronald Lamola, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa, at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International on January 31, 2025 in The Hague, Netherlands [File: Pierre Crom/Getty]

South Africa has called the United States’s plans to impose sanctions on individuals there for alleged discrimination against white Afrikaners a result of “mischaracterisations” being promoted by “fringe groups”.

“We remain committed to addressing these challenges through our constitutional institutions, democratic processes and the rule of law, with the objective of building a more equal and inclusive society for all South Africans,” South African Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola said in a statement on Wednesday.

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Lamola was responding to an announcement made on Tuesday by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Washington would be enacting a new policy aimed at South Africans involved in what he called “race-based” discrimination against white Afrikaners.

Rubio said the US would restrict visas for individuals “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”.

Afrikaners are a minority in South Africa that descends from mostly Dutch colonial settlers, who formalised a system of apartheid in the country that saw land and resources seized from the majority Black population, who were largely relegated to live in enclaves called “Bantustans”.

The apartheid system persisted until 1994, when the country’s first democratic elections brought Black Africans into power.

A 2017 South African government report found that whites, who make up about 7 percent of the population, owned disproportionately large amounts of land, including 72 percent of the individually owned farmland.

South Africa has undertaken programmes to buy land and redistribute it, and in 2025 passed a law that would allow expropriation of land, including in some limited cases without compensating owners.

US President Trump has been lobbied by Afrikaner groups decrying that law and what they say is government-backed discrimination and violent attacks against them, claims that the South African government says are misinformation.

South Africa has also been targeted by Trump for its filing of a case in the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.

The Trump administration has allowed white Afrikaners to receive asylum in the US, and last year froze most foreign assistance to South Africa.

特朗普政府轻信了“边缘团体”散布的虚假信息，这些团体声称存在对白人南非荷兰人的歧视。

2025年1月31日，南非国际关系与合作部长罗纳德·拉莫拉在荷兰海牙举行的由进步国际组织的海牙集团新闻发布会上发表讲话。[图片：Pierre Crom/Getty]

南非称，美国计划对该国一些涉嫌歧视白人南非荷兰人的人士实施制裁，是“边缘团体”散布的“歪曲事实”的结果。

南非国际关系与合作部长罗纳德·拉莫拉周三在一份声明中表示：“我们将继续致力于通过我们的宪法机构、民主进程和法治来应对这些挑战，目标是为所有南非人建设一个更加平等和包容的社会。”

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拉莫拉的回应是针对美国国务卿马可·卢比奥周二发表的声明，该声明称华盛顿将实施一项新政策，旨在打击南非人对白人阿非利卡人的“基于种族的”歧视。

鲁比奥表示，美国将限制向“对制定或实施导致无偿征地、种族歧视和/或煽动针对南非少数族裔或种族群体成员的迫在眉睫的暴力行为负有责任或参与其中”的个人发放签证。

阿非利卡人是南非的一个少数族裔，他们的祖先大多是荷兰殖民定居者。这些定居者在南非正式建立了种族隔离制度，剥夺了占人口多数的黑人的土地和资源，并将他们大多限制在被称为“班图斯坦”的飞地中生活。

种族隔离制度一直持续到 1994 年，当时该国举行了第一次民主选举，黑人非洲人获得了政权。

2017 年南非政府的一份报告发现，白人占总人口的约 7%，却拥有不成比例的大量土地，其中包括 72% 的个人所有农田。

南非已实施购买土地并重新分配土地的计划，并在 2025 年通过了一项法律，允许征用土地，包括在某些有限的情况下不向所有者支付补偿。

美国总统特朗普一直受到南非白人团体的游说，这些团体谴责该法律以及他们所说的政府支持的针对他们的歧视和暴力袭击，但南非政府称这些说法是虚假信息。

南非也因向国际法院提起诉讼，指控以色列在加沙犯下种族灭绝罪行而成为特朗普的攻击目标。

特朗普政府允许白人南非人在美国获得庇护，并且去年冻结了对南非的大部分外国援助。