{"id":865373,"date":"2026-07-03T11:28:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=865373"},"modified":"2026-07-03T11:28:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:28:56","slug":"united-states-top-official-in-south-africa-meets-with-solidarity-and-afriforum-to-make-the-country-safer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/865373\/united-states-top-official-in-south-africa-meets-with-solidarity-and-afriforum-to-make-the-country-safer\/","title":{"rendered":"United States’ top official in South Africa meets with Solidarity and AfriForum to make the country ‘safer’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

United States Ambassador to South Africa Leo Brent Bozell III has met with select trade union, political, and agricultural leaders to discuss ways to make “South Africa safer and more prosperous.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bozell met with leaders from Solidarity, AfriForum, the Southern African Agri Initiative (SAAI), the National Employers’ Association of South Africa (NEASA), and the Freedom Front Plus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several of these groups, especially AfriForum, Solidarity and the Freedom Front Plus, are based on supporting select Afrikaner interests and campaigning on centrist views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meeting between Bozell and these parties comes amid heightened tensions between the two nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kallie Kriel, the Executive Head of Afriforum, said that Solidarity and Afriforum had personally presented their proposals to resolve the dispute between Pretoria and Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This follows several months of providing input to both governments as part of our efforts to find solutions that serve the interests of all parties,” said Kriel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sanctions against South Africa would harm everyone in the country. For this reason, we visited Washington last year in an effort to help prevent these measures in the interest of the country.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kriel said their proposals promote progress that benefits everyone in South Africa while also ensuring important issues are addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These issues include property rights, rural safety, other issues of contention, and several other challenges that specifically affect Afrikaners and other minorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kriel said that no further details can be provided at this stage regarding the discussions that are taking place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States has placed particular focus on what it alleges is a “white genocide” in South Africa that is specifically targeting Afrikaners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa has heightened levels of crime, and several Afrikaner families have been victims of extreme violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, investigations have shown that this level of violence is not an outlier and that a specific targeting of Afrikaans families is unlikely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the issue has taken root in the Trump administration, which has opened the door for thousands of Afrikaners to be granted refugee status in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2026 fiscal year, the United States government gave refugee status to 6,665 South Africans. Aside from three Afghans, South Africans were the only citizens granted refugee status during the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A tense period between the countries<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Leo Brent Bozell III (Fourth from Right)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

While tensions existed between South Africa and the previous United States administration, the return of Donald Trump has upped the ante.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US government officials <\/a>have consistently threatened sanctions against South Africa and ANC leaders. Washington has also criticised the ANC’s relationship with Russia, Iran and China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump announced a 30% trade tariff on South African goods last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the exorbitant tariff was struck down by the US Supreme Court in early 2026, a 12.5% tariff was subsequently put on the cards following a Section 301 investigation into unfair labour practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, other global tariffs remain in place, including a steep 25% tariff on the automotive industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The growing tensions between the US and South Africa saw Trump skip the G20 Summit in South Africa in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the United States hosting the 2026 Summit, Washington has moved to bar South Africa from attending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana and Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago were recently denied accreditation by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Godongwana said that South Africa will thus skip the G20 Summit event this year, given the tensions between the countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, the American private sector continues to see positive signs in the South African market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walmart, the largest retailer in the United States, has begun rolling out its own-brand stores after previously acquiring Makro owner Massmart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US aluminium giant Alcoa has also agreed to buy South32\u2019s bauxite, alumina, and aluminium business in a deal worth up to $5.6 billion (roughly R92 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This deal will give Alcoa ownership of South Africa\u2019s Hillside aluminium smelter, the largest primary aluminium smelter in the Southern Hemisphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are more than 600 American companies operating in South Africa and employing more than 250,000 people.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Ambassador to South Africa Leo Brent Bozell III has met with Solidarity, the VF Plus and AfriForum to discuss the tense relationships between the parties. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":853471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2419,1632,25726,10022,12091],"class_list":["post-865373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-afriforum","tag-solidarity","tag-solidarity-movement","tag-united-states","tag-vf-plus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865373","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865373"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":865419,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865373\/revisions\/865419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}