Wayne Lumbasi
The United States has announced new visa restrictions targeting certain foreign nationals linked to policies in South Africa that it says promote race based discrimination, encourage imminent violence against minority groups or allow land to be taken without compensation.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the new policy on September 15, adding another point of tension to the increasingly strained relationship between the United States and South Africa.
The restrictions will apply to foreign nationals whom the United States determines have been involved in creating or implementing policies that fall within the categories outlined by the US State Department. These include policies that enable uncompensated land seizures, promote discrimination based on race or encourage imminent violence against minority racial or ethnic groups.
The new measures do not amount to a general travel ban on South Africans. Instead, they are designed to target specific individuals whom the United States considers responsible for, or involved in, the policies covered by the announcement.
The dispute is largely centred on South Africa’s land reform programme, an issue that has its roots in the country’s colonial and apartheid history. For decades, laws under apartheid restricted the Black majority from owning land in large parts of South Africa, leaving ownership heavily concentrated among the white minority.
Since the end of apartheid, successive South African governments have pursued land reform to address this historical imbalance. The government argues that changing the country’s land ownership patterns is necessary to correct the effects of past dispossession and inequality.
The issue became more controversial after South Africa introduced new legislation governing the expropriation of property. The Expropriation Act provides a legal framework for the state to acquire property for a public purpose or in the public interest. In certain circumstances, the law allows compensation to be set at nil.
South Africa has stressed that the law does not mean that privately owned land can simply be taken without due process. The government says expropriation must follow the Constitution and the procedures established by law, with compensation determined according to the circumstances of each case.
The United States has taken a different view of the policy, raising concerns that the legislation could facilitate the seizure of land without compensation. The US administration has also repeatedly raised concerns about the treatment of white South Africans, particularly Afrikaners.
South Africa has rejected allegations that its land reform policies are designed to discriminate against white South Africans. The government maintains that the programme is intended to address historical land dispossession and racial inequality created during apartheid.
The disagreement over land has become part of a much wider diplomatic dispute between the two countries. The United States and South Africa have also differed over several foreign policy issues, contributing to increasingly difficult relations between the two governments.
The latest visa restrictions therefore go beyond immigration. By linking visa eligibility to involvement in specific policies, the United States is using its immigration system as a tool of foreign policy in its dealings with South Africa.
For South Africa, the decision comes at a time when questions over land ownership, racial inequality and historical justice remain deeply contested issues. For the United States, the restrictions signal that individuals it believes are directly involved in policies it considers harmful may face consequences when seeking entry into the country.
The policy does not affect South Africans collectively. Its impact will depend on how the United States identifies individuals who fall under the restrictions and how the measures are applied in individual cases. The announcement has nevertheless added another layer to the complicated relationship between the United States and South Africa.
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