South Africa slam planned US sanctions over alleged racial discrimination

What the report says

South Africa has criticised a planned US sanctions policy targeting individuals accused of discrimination against white Afrikaners, saying Washington is being influenced by “fringe groups” and distorted claims about the country. In a statement on Wednesday, South African International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola said the government would deal with inequality and related disputes through its constitutional institutions, democratic processes and the rule of law.

The response followed an announcement on Tuesday by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the United States would restrict visas for people it says are responsible for, or complicit in, race-based discrimination, uncompensated land seizures, or incitement of violence against minority groups in South Africa. The move comes amid renewed debate over land reform and racial inequality in South Africa, where Afrikaners are a white minority descended largely from Dutch colonial settlers.

Al Jazeera reported that South Africa ended apartheid in 1994, but longstanding land ownership disparities remain. A 2017 government report found that white South Africans, who are about 7 percent of the population, held a disproportionate share of farmland. The country has since pursued land redistribution efforts and passed a law in 2025 allowing expropriation in some cases without compensation.

The issue has also become part of wider tensions with the Trump administration, which has been lobbied by Afrikaner groups alleging discrimination and attacks. South Africa has rejected those claims as misinformation, while the US has also granted asylum to some white Afrikaners and cut most foreign assistance to the country.