US ‘may sanction South African politicians’ for first time since apartheid

Joel Pollak, a Trump ally tipped to be the next ambassador, said people with policies viewed as hostile to US interests could be considered.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Africa’s President Cyrial Ramaphosa, US President Donald Trump.

The United States is considering introducing targeted sanctions on South African political figures for the first time since the apartheid era, according to an ally of President Trump tipped to be the next ambassador to South Africa.

Joel Pollak confirmed that action against political figures with links to corruption or policies viewed as hostile to US interests was being deliberated in Washington.

“It’s something that could happen,” Pollak said, as relations between the two nations soured to their lowest point since diplomatic ties were restored after the end of white minority rule.

Trump cut financial aid to Pretoria shortly after taking office over what he views as anti-white laws at home and hostile foreign policies, including its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, refused to attend a G20 summit in Johannesburg and said: “South Africa is doing very bad things.”

Former South African Ambassador to the United States Ebrahim Rasool arrives at the Cape Town International airport, in Cape Town, on March 23. Picture: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP

Last week Rubio expelled Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa’s ambassador to the US, after he told an online discussion that Trump was part of a “supremacist assault on incumbency” motivated by white people’s fears of becoming a minority. Rasool arrived home on Sunday to a raucous welcome by hundreds of supporters and said that he had “no regrets” over his remarks.

“I will wear my persona non grata [label] as a badge of dignity, our values and that we have done the right thing,” Rasool told hundreds of people who had gathered at the airport in Cape Town, ignoring a plea by President Ramaphosa to avoid action “that may worsen the already volatile diplomatic relationship with the United States”.

For its part, Washington may decide against sending an ambassador to Pretoria altogether unless strained relations improve, Pollak, 47, said he “would be delighted to do the job if offered”.

Rasool’s defiance and the fact that there is no sign of Ramaphosa softening on the issues that triggered Trump’s grievances has intensified speculation that the US president will soon cancel South Africa’s trade benefits under a pact that provides tariff-free access for many exports to the US market.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa. Picture: Rodger Bosch / AFP

Ramaphosa’s government has justified land reforms and Black Economic Empowerment laws as necessary measures to correct apartheid-era injustices, which left the majority of land in white hands.

In considering targeted sanctions, Pollak, who is a senior editor at Breitbart, the US right-wing news platform, said that Washington was reviewing the findings of several inquiries into corruption and maladministration that have been established by the Pretoria government over the past 15 years, in addition to its own investigations.

The most recent and extensive inquiry, the Zondo commission, identified numerous senior officials who allegedly participated in the looting of state resources, primarily during President Zuma’s time in office. The corruption is estimated to have cost the economy 500 billion rand (pounds 21.2 billion).

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Picture: Saul Loeb/Pool/AFP

Zuma was briefly jailed for refusing to comply with a court order to testify before the commission which ran for four years. Despite Zondo’s findings that were delivered to Ramaphosa in 2022, little action has been taken on his recommendations.

The former president, who was forced to resign in 2017 to make way for Ramaphosa, also faces a separate criminal case involving allegations of bribery related to an arms deal made in the late 1990s during his time as deputy president.

Pollak argued that singling out corrupt South Africans for business and travel bans would avoid a collective punishment and be welcomed by the wider population.

Trump has offered safe haven to Afrikaners - South Africans of mainly Dutch, French and German descent - claiming they face persecution by their government.

“The idea is not to punish the South Africans who are effective at generating economic growth and might be the most pro-western. You don’t want to punish friends,” Pollak said.

Pollak was born in South Africa, but moved to the US as an infant with his parents. He later returned to study in Cape Town and worked as a speechwriter for the leader of the Democratic Alliance which now forms part of the coalition government under Ramaphosa, after the African National Congress’s loss of overall power at the last general election.

Pollak is among several influential figures close to Trump with roots in southern Africa. The most prominent is Elon Musk. Others include David Sacks, the new cryptocurrency tsar, and Peter Thiel, a billionaire backer of Trump who spent part of his childhood in apartheid-era Namibia and South Africa.

“I think former South Africans have an acute sense of how democracy can go horribly wrong and lose the gains of democracy through race, political correctness and bad policies,” said Pollak.

“The relationship that the US had with South Africa was with the ‘Rainbow Nation’ of the 1990s. It is not one that can survive the racial nationalism of the ANC-led government.

“We have watched in shock and horror at how [South Africa’s democracy] has declined.”

Without mentioning Trump by name, Ramaphosa said in his state of the nation address in February, shortly after the abrupt announcement of financial aid cuts, that his country “will not be bullied”.

The Times