{"id":45718,"date":"2026-09-17T09:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T07:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=45718"},"modified":"2026-09-17T09:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T07:44:07","slug":"dirco-rejects-us-claims-on-sas-race-laws","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/dirco-rejects-us-claims-on-sas-race-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"DIRCO rejects US claims on SA\u2019s race laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) says the latest action from Washington is based on a fundamental misrepresentation of its laws and its efforts to address the racial inequalities inherited from apartheid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Pretoria has hit back after United States (US) Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new visa restrictions targeting people Washington says are responsible for race-based discrimination, uncompensated land seizures or incitement against minority groups.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">No individuals have yet been publicly named as yet but the diplomatic dispute is widening.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The US Ambassador to SA, Leo Brent Bozell III, says the visa measures are only the &#8220;first step&#8221; in a series of escalating actions, while proposed legislation in the US Congress has separately sought a broader review of relations and possible sanctions against SA officials and African National Congress leaders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The latest confrontation comes more than a year after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that transformed disagreements over land, race and foreign policy into one of the most serious ruptures in US and SA relations in decades.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">SA is pushing back strongly against Washington&#8217;s latest escalation, saying the US is misrepresenting policies designed to confront the enduring racial inequalities of apartheid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola, who arrived in the US imminently, says SA has a sovereign and constitutional responsibility to address centuries of racial injustice, accusing what he called fringe groups of portraying themselves as representatives of minorities and Afrikaners more broadly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":28464,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-45718","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"DIRCO says the latest action from US is based on fundamental misrepresentation","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45719,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45718\/revisions\/45719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=45718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}