Bozell explained that while private US companies are not barred from investing in South Africa\u2014and some still do\u2014they will naturally refrain from doing so if they feel vulnerable to losing their assets without fair compensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“History is replete with examples of corporations that participated in investments in countries only to have those countries use this expropriation type of law to take away their companies,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bozell said that billions of dollars are being kept from entering South Africa because of the Expropriation Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He explained that provisions in the Act make investors hesitant to invest in the country, for fear of their companies being taken away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the new Act, which was signed into law in January 2025, the government may expropriate property\u2014which is not necessarily restricted to land\u2014for “nil” compensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The laws are currently being challenged in court, with opponents arguing that it contravenes Section 25 of the Constitution, which explicitly states that “just and equitable compensation” be given when expropriating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ANC, under a previous majority administration, attempted to change the Constitution itself to remove this. This failed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The provision for “nil” compensation was subsequently written into the new Act to bypass this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opponents have argued that the Constitution also explicitly refers to an “amount”. Proponents of the law argue that “nil” compensation is an amount. It remains untested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bozell said it is South Africa’s prerogative to have such a law, but then it should not expect investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If you want to have that law, so be it, but then don’t expect American corporations to invest in your country,” he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that government agencies such as the Export-Import Bank (EXIM) and the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) in the United States hold billions in potential investment funds intended for South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, he explained that these United States taxpayer funds are currently being withheld from investment due to South Africa’s land expropriation policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“So long as that policy is there, the United States is not going to use billions of dollars of its own taxpayer money to invest in a country that has this policy,” said Bozell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
America’s five ‘asks’ to South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Trump-7-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/a>US President Donald Trump<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThis comes after the US government asked South Africa to remove the legal provision allowing land to be expropriated without compensation to owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is part of the five requests presented to President Cyril Ramaphosa by US President Donald Trump in June 2025, aimed at improving relations between the two countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bozell explained that Washington considered removing the policy of uncompensated expropriation to be one of the easier requests, believing that South Africa’s courts would rule it unconstitutional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He highlighted that South African law had previously guaranteed compensation based on fair market value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa\u2019s Expropriation Act provides scope for the state to expropriate property with nil compensation in particular circumstances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bozell explained that the United States will not negotiate the expropriation-without-compensation regulations until South Africa’s judiciary rules on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that if the courts do not rule the act unconstitutional, it will negatively affect investment in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Cyril Ramaphosa met with Bozell in August 2026 to recalibrate relations between the two countries and is reportedly drafting a response to President Trump’s five requests, which were made over a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first ask is to protect rural communities from violence, referring to the globally publicised farm attacks. In 2025, the US wanted this to become a priority crime focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another ask is to condemn rhetoric that incites hatred and glorifies violence, referring to the infamous \u201ckill the boer\u201d chant. The US wants the government to publicly condemn this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump also demanded that appropriation policies include fair and clear compensation standards, referring to the government\u2019s move to normalise \u201cnil\u201d compensation in new expropriation laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, Trump wants the “mandatory surrender of ownership or control over corporate decision-making” removed as a cost of doing business, citing South Africa\u2019s strict BEE policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last of the asks is unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was previously stated that South Africa end its association with Iran and enemies of the United States, and become a non-aligned state as it purports to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, it has now been adjusted to be that South Africa not interfere with the Trump Administration’s Afrikaner migration programme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United States Ambassador\u00a0to South Africa said that South Africa’s Expropriation Act is holding the country back from significant investments by American corporations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":818183,"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":"2102375133608288668","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2213048279515571","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18124051309846245","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[22120,20266,24267],"class_list":["post-876602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-leo-brent-bozell-iii","tag-president-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-president-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876602","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\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876602"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876664,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876602\/revisions\/876664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/a>This comes after the US government asked South Africa to remove the legal provision allowing land to be expropriated without compensation to owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is part of the five requests presented to President Cyril Ramaphosa by US President Donald Trump in June 2025, aimed at improving relations between the two countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bozell explained that Washington considered removing the policy of uncompensated expropriation to be one of the easier requests, believing that South Africa’s courts would rule it unconstitutional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He highlighted that South African law had previously guaranteed compensation based on fair market value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa\u2019s Expropriation Act provides scope for the state to expropriate property with nil compensation in particular circumstances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bozell explained that the United States will not negotiate the expropriation-without-compensation regulations until South Africa’s judiciary rules on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that if the courts do not rule the act unconstitutional, it will negatively affect investment in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Cyril Ramaphosa met with Bozell in August 2026 to recalibrate relations between the two countries and is reportedly drafting a response to President Trump’s five requests, which were made over a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first ask is to protect rural communities from violence, referring to the globally publicised farm attacks. In 2025, the US wanted this to become a priority crime focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another ask is to condemn rhetoric that incites hatred and glorifies violence, referring to the infamous \u201ckill the boer\u201d chant. The US wants the government to publicly condemn this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump also demanded that appropriation policies include fair and clear compensation standards, referring to the government\u2019s move to normalise \u201cnil\u201d compensation in new expropriation laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, Trump wants the “mandatory surrender of ownership or control over corporate decision-making” removed as a cost of doing business, citing South Africa\u2019s strict BEE policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last of the asks is unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was previously stated that South Africa end its association with Iran and enemies of the United States, and become a non-aligned state as it purports to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, it has now been adjusted to be that South Africa not interfere with the Trump Administration’s Afrikaner migration programme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United States Ambassador\u00a0to South Africa said that South Africa’s Expropriation Act is holding the country back from significant investments by American corporations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":818183,"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":"2102375133608288668","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2213048279515571","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18124051309846245","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[22120,20266,24267],"class_list":["post-876602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-leo-brent-bozell-iii","tag-president-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-president-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876602","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\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876602"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876664,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876602\/revisions\/876664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}