{"id":632658,"date":"2026-03-10T15:08:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=632658"},"modified":"2026-03-10T15:10:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:10:55","slug":"united-states-sends-a-warning-to-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business\/632658-united-states-sends-a-warning-to-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"United States sends a warning to South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, Leo Brent Bozell III, pointed to billions of rands in American tech investment before warning that Washington was running out of patience with Pretoria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at the 2026 BizNews Conference in Hermanus, Bozell cited major commitments from Visa, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon as evidence of U.S. commercial goodwill toward South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe United States values partners in South Africa,\u201d Bozell told delegates. He added that South Africa remains the largest U.S. trade and investment partner in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 500 American companies operate in the country, employing over 250,000 South Africans and contributing meaningfully to economic growth, the ambassador said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visa launched its first African data centre in Johannesburg in 2025, part of a R1 billion investment in South Africa over three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google Cloud opened its first African cloud region in Johannesburg, while Microsoft is investing an additional R5 billion by 2027 to expand cloud and AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microsoft has already invested more than R16 billion in South Africa and is helping to train one million South Africans for the digital economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon is expanding its South African presence with new facilities and the AWS Skills Centre in Cape Town \u2014 the first such facility outside the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are not isolated announcements,\u201d Bozell said. \u201cThey’re proof that American companies bring capital, high standards, cutting-edge technology, workforce development, and long-term commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bozell described these investments as \u201ccommercial diplomacy in action\u201d, but stressed that partnership must be rooted in reciprocity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He made clear that the commercial relationship alone cannot sustain bilateral ties without South Africa addressing specific political and policy concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bozell outlined what he called “five asks” \u2014 conditions the US expects South Africa to meet \u2014 and expressed frustration that they had gone unanswered for nearly a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His first and most prominent demand was a return to genuine non-alignment in foreign policy, which he said was U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s primary expectation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He criticised South Africa for drifting toward U.S. adversaries, specifically citing the sending of condolence letters to Iran and what he described as insulting the U.S. President.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although not explicitly mentioned, the non-alignment issue is also closely tied to South Africa\u2019s ICJ case accusing Israel of genocide without including charges against Hamas for its 7 October 2023 attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The five asks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
U.S. President Donald Trump, right, holds news articles to justify his remarks about the persecution of white people in South Africa, during a meeting with Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday, May 21, 2025. Photographer: Jim Lo Scalzo\/EPA\/Bloomberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The U.S.\u2019s second demand was for a level playing field in business, stating that American companies must be allowed to compete in South Africa on equal footing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, he called for clear and fair expropriation policies with certainty around property rights, noting that investor confidence depends on predictable compensation standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Expropriation Act into law in January 2025, explicitly allowing nil compensation under relatively broad circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump responded to this and the ICJ case by signing an executive order in February 2025 halting U.S. foreign aid to South Africa and creating a controversial refugee programme for the country\u2019s racial minorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When businesses believe their property rights may be uncertain, when policy frameworks create unpredictability instead of clarity, common ground becomes harder to sustain,” Bozell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourth, the ambassador called for an end to mandatory surrender of ownership or control of corporate decision-making as a condition for doing business in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He acknowledged the importance of addressing historical injustice but argued that B-BBEE policies introduce compliance requirements and ownership challenges that stall foreign investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifth, Bozell demanded government action on rural safety and condemnation of rhetoric that glorifies hatred, singling out the \u201cKill The Boer\u201d chant specifically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care what your courts say, it\u2019s hate speech,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington’s frustration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Julius Malema leading a chant of “Kill the Boer” at an EFF rally<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bozell expressed frustration that the U.S. had presented these demands to the South African government nearly a year ago without receiving a substantive response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“President Trump’s America First policy means I’m here to advance the security, prosperity, and values of the American people,” Bozell said. “But America First does not mean America alone.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the five asks, Bozell listed expanded cooperation in digital technology and critical minerals as a straightforward and achievable goal for both countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relations between Pretoria and Washington have deteriorated sharply, with Trump cutting U.S. aid, imposing steep tariffs, and publicly accusing South Africa of persecuting its white minority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa has not had an ambassador in Washington since the Trump administration expelled Ebrahim Rasool in early 2025 after he publicly criticised the U.S. President.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, Leo Brent Bozell III, pointed to billions of rands in American tech investment before warning that Washington was running out of patience with Pretoria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":632661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,40380],"tags":[723,27247,33897,103699,123,899],"class_list":["post-632658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-trending","tag-amazon","tag-biznews","tag-google-cloud","tag-leo-brent-bozell-iii","tag-microsoft","tag-visa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":632671,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632658\/revisions\/632671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}