US curbs S. Africa visas, alleging 'race-based discrimination'

WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday announced new restrictions on visas for South Africans, after President Donald Trump repeatedly criticised the country's leaders over its post-apartheid racial justice policies.

Trump has lambasted South Africa's land and employment laws that are meant to redress stark inequalities that remain 30 years after the end of white-minority rule.

In 2025, he berated President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office over discredited claims of a "white genocide" in South Africa. He has also hit the country with high tariffs and boycotted a G20 summit in Johannesburg.

The new visa restrictions target South Africans who "enable uncompensated land seizures, race-based discrimination, and/or the incitement of imminent violence against members of minority ethnic or racial groups," the US State Department said.

Ties between the two nations have nosedived since Trump took office last year, with the US leader cutting aid, expelling the South African ambassador and offering "refuge" to South African whites fleeing "persecution."

While the US president has cracked down on immigration, he launched a scheme under which thousands of white Afrikaners have been allowed to settle in the United States.

South Africa said last month it would offer a "generous" new trade deal to the United States as it seeks to avoid hefty tariffs that threaten massive job losses on top of its dire unemployment crisis.