{"id":847537,"date":"2026-01-11T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=847537"},"modified":"2026-01-11T10:37:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T08:37:35","slug":"meet-americas-new-top-official-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/847537\/meet-americas-new-top-official-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet America’s new top official in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leo Brent Bozell III has officially been sworn in as the United States Ambassador-designate to South Africa, amid extremely strained tensions between the two countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bozell is a conservative writer, activist and media owner. Born in 1955, he runs the largest media watchdog organisation in America, the Media Research Centre (MRC), according to the US State Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since its launch in 1987, the MRC has developed the world’s most extensive video archive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has also created the popular NewsBusters.org blog site, CNSNews.com, MRC Business, MRC Culture, MRCTV, MRC Latino, and Free Speech America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MRC has nearly 500,000 members nationwide, with over 12 million fans on Facebook and more than 7.7 million video views. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2010, Bozell also founded ForAmerica, an organisation committed to “restoring America to its founding principles”, said the State Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ForAmerica has over 7 million Facebook followers with the most “engaged social media army in the conservative movement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creators Syndicate syndicated his bi-weekly column to over 50 media outlets nationwide. He has also authored or co-authored six books, and his writings have also appeared in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has been named the 1998 Pew Memorial Lecturer by Grove City College and is often a speaker on school campuses and for civic and political organisations around the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He is one of the most outspoken and effective national leaders in the conservative movement,” said the State Department. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Mr Bozell\u2019s skills and sustained accomplishments over the years… position him well to serve as the US Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He holds a BA from the University of Dallas, where he was named Alumnus of the Year in 1998. In 2015, he received an honorary PhD from UD. He is married and has five children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A strained relationship<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Bozell (left) being sworn in (Source: US Embassy.)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Bozell will only officially assume the position of ambassador to South Africa once he has presents his credentials to President Cyril Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He will be taking up the job amid an agitated period between South Africa and the USA following the return of President Donald Trump to the White House in early 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, while the US has finally appointed an ambassador to South Africa, the inverse is yet to take place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former ambassador Ebrahim Rasool was deemed persona non grata in May 2025 after calling Trump a white supremacist. Since then, diplomats sent to the US have been met with a cold shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In lieu of an ambassador, Ramaphosa appointed former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas as his ‘special envoy’ to the US, but reports indicated that he, too, was not welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa has not yet appointed another official to serve as ambassador. Meanwhile, tensions have only risen with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House has pushed claims of a white genocide and land grabs in South Africa, and has opened its refugee program to Afrikaners who it says face heightened violence in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump and his cabinet also refused to attend the G20 conference in Johannesburg in November 2025, despite it being the norm for global leaders to send at least one high-ranking government official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economically, the picture is not much better, with the USA imposing a 30% “reciprocal” tariff on South African goods as part of the “America First Strategy.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

US lawmakers have also pushed legislation to ‘punish’ South Africa for its geopolitical ties and relationships, accusing the country of aligning with its enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, two bills\u2014in the House and the Senate\u2014have been tabled to review the US’s relationship with South Africa and to possibly bring sanctions against government officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critically, despite expressing intentions and willingness to extend the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA)\u2014which grants beneficial access to US markets\u2014lawmakers want South Africa to be excluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is unclear whether Bozell’s presence as ambassador will ease or exacerbate these tensions. The ambassador-designate has already expressed his \u2018wish list\u2019 of demands for South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes withdrawing the ICJ case against Israel, exempting US businesses from BEE regulations, protecting property rights, and distancing South Africa from its BRICS partners, particularly China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leo Brent Bozell III has been sworn in as the US Ambassador-designate to South Africa amid a strained relationship between the two nations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":847549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[22120],"class_list":["post-847537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-leo-brent-bozell-iii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847537"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847560,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847537\/revisions\/847560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}