UNDIPLOMATIC CONDUCT: Amb Bozell has emerged like a wrecking ball in SA’s domestic affairs
New US Ambassador to South Africa, Leo Brent Bozell, has hardly completed a full calendar year since he was posted to Pretoria, yet the negative attention he is attracting is already posing a nightmare in SA foreign affairs circles.
This week, Bozell was “demarched” by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) in Pretoria following a series of unrepentant public attacks on SA’s domestic policies.
It was the second time in a mere seven months that DIRCO had summoned Bozell over “undiplomatic conduct” to register utter displeasure with his errant behaviour. The first time was in March, following Bozell’s attacks on SA’s political chant “kill the boer, kill the farmer”, which the courts had declared did not constitute hate speech.
By all accounts, Bozell appear like a man on a mission – wearing a false diplomatic mask and his behaviour a far cry from traditional diplomatic norms. Arrogance is written all over Bozell’s utterances, his tone ever so condescending and his words unmistakable in undermining SA’s sovereignty.
Bozell has taken over from another political irritant, former US Ambassador to SA, one Reuben Brigety, whose departure following the return of President Donald Trump to the Oval Office was viewed in SA as nothing short of good riddance. The less said about him, the better. Let me therefore stick with the current elephant in the room.
Bozell is an accomplished public office bearer in the US. His impressive resume` paints a picture of a man who shouldn’t struggle to differentiate between wrong and right.
At the heart of it all, Bozell ought to know, bilateral diplomatic relations are intended to foster deeper and mutually beneficial ties between nations. The US is traditionally a strategic ally of the SA, since the days of apartheid to the dawn of democracy until the present day.
The US has oftentimes struggled with interacting with the democratically ANC-led government. It is the Black Caucus in Washington that has consistently maintained closer ties with the ANC, a former liberation movement that African-Americans largely supported at the height of apartheid.
As for Bozell and his ilk, Wikipedia points out that in 1987, Bozell was part of a coalition that opposed then US President Ronald Reagan from meeting with the then ANC President, Oliver Tambo, whom Conservatives regarded as a detestable leader of a terrorist organization that was banned by Afrikaners in SA.
Of course, Bozell and many like him have come to eat a humble pie. Mandela led the ANC to victory in the country’s first democratic elections in April 1994. Subsequently, Mandela was feted like a king when he visited Washington, his majestic visit draped in pomp and ceremony.
But judging by how people such as Bozell interfaces with the ANC-led government of today, it is difficult to cast aside history and the lessons it offers.
The sheer unadulterated drive by Bozell to discredit the SA government is worrisome in every respect. Bozell and his boss in the White House believe that white Afrikaners are being persecuted in SA. They call it a white genocide. They feed off from the treasonous campaign of AfriForum about exaggerated farm killings. AfriForum freely bad-mouths SA government with a pack of racist lies in Washington, where their ilk in Elon Musk await to amplify their false narrative. The success of their multipronged strategy is unmissable. President Trump has signed an executive order declaring white Afrikaners victims of genocide in SA, curiously in the wake of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s daring haul of Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on charges of “real” genocide.
The Trump administration has highlighted a few domestic policies in SA that they take umbrage with. These include, among others, “kill the boer, kill the farmer” chant, expropriation of land without compensation and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), to which Bozell wants American businesses to be exempt.
There is absolutely nothing improper about Washington’s apprehension about these policies or any other for that matter. However, in diplomatic tradition and culture, there are particular ways to express outside view about a domestic policy.
UNREPENTANT TO THE END: Former US Amb Reuben Brigety made outlandish claims against SA
Failure to adhere to diplomatic decorum can bear huge repercussions. Former SA Ambassador to the US, Ibrahim Rasool, was swiftly declared a persona non grata after he criticised President Trump’s domestic policies in a webinar.
He was kicked out of Washington within a week in one of the most publicly ignominious expulsions.
In addition, the Trump administration refused to have Mcebisi Jonas as Rasool’s swift replacement. President Ramaphosa finally appointed an Afrikaner, Roelf Meyer, to the vacant ambassadorial post in Washington. This bold effort to demonstrate inclusion of Afrikaners in SA’s political dispensation will likely bear fruits. Recently, Amb Meyer made international headlines with his rare public declaration that there is no such a thing as white genocide in SA. This counter strategy by Pretoria may well prove to be a masterstroke. AfriForum, Musk, Trump and Bozell being checkmated by a dyed-in-the-wool Afrikaner can be quite devastating.
But, of course, Bozell and the Trump administration will continue to undermine SA’s democracy under the ANC. This is a treacherous journey Pretoria and the ANC must be prepared to travel for the next couple of years.
This week’s summons of Bozell to DIRCO was neither the first nor the last. Washington has a scant regard for Pretoria’s sovereignty. DIRCO Minister Ronald Lamola has thus far done very well articulating Pretoria’s position, including SA’s right to independence of thought and indeed sovereignty.
Sometimes it looks like the US diplomatic mission in SA is too keen to pick up a fight with the host nation. So far Pretoria has behaved commendably in a dim view of unwarranted provocations. However, at some point, methinks Pretoria will have to do to Bozell what Washington did to Rasool, particularly if Bozell proves to be a serial offender that he seems determined to be.
