Reps. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) and John James (R-Mich.) introduced a bill on Friday to review Washington’s bilateral relationship with South Africa, amid Pretoria’s alliances with terror groups and states hostile to the United States.
The legislation would mandate a complete review of the U.S.-South African relationship and would help advance U.S. President Donald Trump’s “foreign policy agenda by giving him the tools necessary to impose sanctions on corrupt South African government officials, who choose to support America’s adversaries like China, Russia and Iran,” Jackson stated.
The U.S. State Department declared Ebrahim Rasool, the South African ambassador to Washington, persona non grata last month after the envoy said at a seminar that Trump was launching “an assault on incumbency, those who are in power, by mobilizing a supremacism against the incumbency, at home.”
“South Africa’s ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated at the time. “Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates President Trump.”
Washington had been pressuring Pretoria publicly to repeal a law that would allow for land seizures, without compensation, under specific circumstances. The Trump administration said that the legislation discriminates against South Africa’s white minority and cut off funding for the country.
The United States has also grown increasingly agitated by South Africa’s initiation of a war crimes case, including charges of “genocide,” against Israel at the International Court of Justice, the United Nations high court, which is located in The Hague. The case is ongoing.
Leaders of the African National Congress, the country’s ruling party, have supported Hamas publicly and reoriented South Africa’s relations toward U.S. adversaries.
“South Africa has brazenly abandoned its relationship with the United States to align with China, Russia, Iran and terrorist organizations, a betrayal that demands serious consequences,” Jackson stated.
“This legislation ensures we conduct a comprehensive review of this supposed ‘ally’ while also holding accountable any corrupt officials,” the congressman added. “The era of governments undermining American interests without repercussions ends now.”
James, who authored similar legislation last year that was not passed into law, wrote that Pretoria is undermining “U.S. national security interests, and in recent years, intentionally aligned with Beijing, Moscow and Tehran and pursued an anti-Israel agenda.”
“The United States must examine all of our bilateral relationships around the world and investigate all options to hold those countries and leaders who align with our adversaries responsible,” he stated.