He said that the United States has made demands regarding Black Economic Empowerment, land expropriation (including the issue of nil compensation), and foreign policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are “issues that belong to the sovereignty of the South African public and South African institutions,” the minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that South Africa is more than capable of determining and handling these policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“These are issues of serious contestation with the United States, and we are of the view that they belong to the South African public.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lamola was responding to the United States’ move on Wednesday, 16 September, to impose visa sanctions on the country.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the visas of certain individuals, and possibly their families, would be restricted and denied entry into the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Specifically, this would target any \u201cwho are responsible for, or complicit in, the enactment or implementation\u201d of policies the US deems \u201cegregious\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This includes uncompensated land seizures, race-based discrimination, and the incitement of imminent violence against \u201cmembers of minority ethnic or racial groups in South Africa\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n US Ambassador to South Africa Brent Bozell said that the visa restrictions were just the first step, with ‘severe’ consequences to follow.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Responding to the sanctions<\/strong><\/a> soon after they were announced, Lamola said that the United States was acting on misunderstandings and the mischaracterisation of South Africa’s policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Echoing that response, the minister has now stressed that South Africa is a constitutional democracy and that the laws and policies in place have been adopted through the democratic process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “While we remain optimistic about engaging with the American government, we also have to ensure that the sovereignty of the South African Constitution remains sacrosanct,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n South African Ambassador to the United States, Roelf Meyer, expressed similar sentiments, particularly around the mixed messages being sent to Washington about local policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We know there is a lot of misunderstanding and misrepresentation about South Africa’s case when it comes to our Constitutional framework and how we apply it,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meyer said that one of the difficulties is that the means of communication have changed. In the past, there were very clear, formal diplomatic channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Now, there’s no regulated channel. Everyone speaks for themselves, and that brings a lot of challenges.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said there is a lot of misrepresentation about South Africa’s policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “As if there is government-initiated violence taking place, so-called genocide and things like that – we all know it’s not true, but that is the narrative that is being broadcast by some,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We have to address that and find ways to bring the real story across.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meyer said he is optimistic that the issues between the United States and South Africa can be resolved, as long as there is open communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Troubles can be solved if people talk to each other. It often starts with talks about talks, then there’s a dialogue, and then there are negotiations,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The bilateral relationship that is at the foundation of this relationship must be restored, and it can only be done through dialogue.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the ambassador said it has to be done in a way that the parties accept each other as equal partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “One cannot prescribe over the other, because then it will definitely not lead to a solution to the problem,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Minister of International Relations, Ronald Lamola, says that the South Africans should prepare themselves for the worst.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":857644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2101941512145711190","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2211843196302746","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18101361116629827","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26584,26585,853,10022],"class_list":["post-876362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-lamola","tag-roelf-meyer","tag-south-africa","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876362","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=876362"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876401,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876362\/revisions\/876401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Mixed messages about South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Roelf-Meyer-1024x576.jpg\")
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