Pretoria Rages After US Ambassador Offers Frank and Positive Assessment of The Country

Speaking at the BizNews Conference in Hermanus this week, United States (US) ambassador Leo Brent Bozell III set out a frank but positive view of South Africa and its prospects. South Africa’s government responded with barely concealed contempt.

Bozell, who took up his post last month, made it clear that South Africa matters to Washington.

In what was intended as an olive branch to reset relations, Bozell said, “He [President Trump] values the relationship with South Africa and considers it among the top 10 countries in terms of importance.”

Bozell was positive about his experience of South Africa thus far.

“I have already begun to experience the richness and complexity of this remarkable country,” he said, highlighting the “deep reservoir of talent, ambition, and confidence” in the nation. South Africa, he said, is “a nation of immense potential, immense complexity, and immense importance, not only on this continent but around the globe.”

Bozell was emphatic that the US values South Africa.

“The US values partners in South Africa. This country is Africa’s largest economy, and it’s the largest US trade and investment partner in sub‑Saharan Africa.”

Bozell pointed to the substantial American commercial presence in South Africa as evidence.

He cited Visa’s R1 billion investment in a data centre in Johannesburg saying, “That’s not symbolic. That’s infrastructure”.

He said that Google Cloud’s R16 billion regional investment and Microsoft’s expansion are “helping to skill one million South Africans”.

“Amazon is another great American tech company… providing much-needed skills at training centres like the AWS Skills Centre in Cape Town,” he said, “the first international facility of its kind outside of the United States of America.”

“These are not isolated announcements. They’re proof that American companies bring capital, high standards, cutting‑edge technology, workforce development, and long‑term commitment.”

Bozell also urged South African businesses to look at expanding into the US, unveiling a new SelectUSA Investment Accelerator aimed at helping local investors access American markets.

“I encourage any interested business leaders to contact my team for more information and to discuss the ways we can support you in your investment journey,” he said.

The tenor of the ambassador’s speech was perhaps best summed up in the following line: “When I came here, I was not looking to have a fight. I came here to find ways that our countries can come back to the table and proceed.”

The ambassador also said, as local and international investors have repeatedly stressed, that policy unpredictability can undermine confidence.

“When businesses believe their property rights may be uncertain, when policy frameworks create unpredictability instead of clarity… common ground becomes harder to sustain.”

“When those policies are structured in ways that introduce challenges to ownership or create complex compliance requirements or are clouded in charges of corruption, investors begin to reassess risk... Fewer factories are built. Fewer smaller businesses are integrated into supply chains. Fewer young South Africans gain access to the skills and jobs that large‑scale investment can create.”

This, he indicated, is why the US is seeking clarity and alignment on strategic, economic, and political issues between the two nations.

Beyond policy uncertainty, these ranged from rural security, and the “kill the Boer” chant, to South Africa’s ties to US adversaries and its Iran ties, with Bozell saying, “I want South Africa to become non-aligned again. That’s not too much to ask.”

During questions, Bozell described the murderous chant as hate speech despite a South African court finding to the contrary (polls show that roughly three-quarters of South Africans would agree with the ambassador’s remark).

South Africa’s government reacted swiftly and with outrage.

South Africa’s foreign minister, Ronald Lamola, was quick to issue a demarche – arguably the most serious rebuke a country can direct at a foreign diplomat short of expulsion.

In an incoherent explanation to the media, Lamola sought to justify the demarche as follows:

“But now that he has visited our country, he has visited the Apartheid museum…he has seen the effects of land dispossession…he will visit parts of our country and see the racial segregation that still exists in its spatial planning…which is also reflected in his speech…which acknowledges all these issues…[incoherent] maybe when you see the issues not in the scripted part of his speech you see the issues coming out in a very non-diplomatic way…but it is that reason why we called him in to engage…that we now have 30 years of democracy because South Africans have been tolerating each other…we have built a constitution…we have built a society…it has not been easy…so he must not take us back to a polarised society along racial lines…his role as a guest is to support us to build one nation…that we are continuing to build as a country….[we want] partners including development partners who are our guests here to support that process…it has not been easy to build 30 years of democracy and it has not been easy and there are platforms to ventilate issues to mitigate and mediate some of these issues…so we are taking his presence in our country in that context.”

Sources told The Common Sense that South Africa’s foreign ministry was out for vengeance following the expulsion of Ebrahim Rasool as South African ambassador to Washington in March 2025 (almost exactly a year ago) and wanted to humiliate the US and the new ambassador.

A veteran observer of South Africa’s politics commented that, “there are no pills for stupid.”

South Africa’s economy is in grave trouble with 2025 economic growth coming in at just 1.1% amidst an unemployment rate of over 30%, which rises to over 50% among young people. Polling newly in the hands of The Common Sense shows that support for the African National Congress (ANC), the party Lamola belongs to, continues to dwell at sub-40% (30 percentage points off its peak of two decades ago). That same polling shows that South Africans wish for pragmatic foreign relations.

A new trade and investment pact with the US is a critical step towards economic recovery in South Africa, but the latest overreaction of the South African government will instead send a message to Washington that even when an olive branch in pursuit of a reset of relations is offered, Pretoria shows no interest in taking it up.