Trump appoints Leo Brent Bozell III, a defender of apartheid in the 1980s, as ambassador to South Africa

His name is Leo Brent Bozell III, and as of this Monday, he is the new United States ambassador to South Africa. Although he is not a diplomat and has few ties to Africa, in the 1980s he was known for his defense of apartheid and his criticism of the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party in Pretoria, which he accused of terrorism. In 2013, five days after the death of Nelson Mandela, the great South African anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, he said that the media “idealized” his figure. Today, Bozell defends the “white genocide” thesis, which points to the South African government as the promoter of land confiscations and crimes against the white minority, and he advocates for the acceptance of Afrikaners as refugees in the United States.

The new ambassador to South Africa, a 70-year-old art history graduate, comes from a deeply conservative family. In addition to actively supporting the election of Republican politicians, such as Ronald Reagan, in 1987, he founded the Media Research Center (MRC), an organization created to combat liberal and left-leaning approaches in the media. It was then that he became a prominent defender of apartheid, the discriminatory and racist regime imposed on South Africa by the white minority. Although known as a writer and columnist, his own colleagues at the MRC have accused him of not having written any of his works. His son, Leo Brent Bozell IV, participated in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, for which he was sentenced to 45 months in prison. He was later granted a presidential pardon by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Given his ties to the media, Trump announced Bozell’s appointment as head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media in January 2025, but just two months later reversed course and designated him as the new ambassador to South Africa. In public statements, Trump argued that Bozell “brings fearless tenacity, extraordinary experience, and vast knowledge to a nation that desperately needs it.” Trump was alluding to the fact that, since his arrival at the White House, relations between the U.S. And South Africa have deteriorated rapidly.

In addition to Washington’s allegations of an alleged “white genocide” in South Africa — claims that Pretoria vehemently rejects — the diplomatic rift widened after South Africa filed a case against Israel before the International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing it of committing “genocide” against the Palestinian population in Gaza. The U.S. Believes that Pretoria has not only opened a case against one of its most importnant international allies but that it has also moved closer to Russia, China, and Iran.

The latest chapter in this bilateral crisis unfolded at the G‑20. Trump refused to attend the summit of the organization, held in Johannesburg last November, and exerted pressure in every possible way until he succeeded in getting South Africa to withdraw from the G-20 for a year, coinciding with the U.S. Presidency of the forum of the world’s most developed countries in 2026..

Leo Brent Bozell III himself made his intentions as ambassador clear when he was called to testify before a Senate committee last October: “I will communicate our objections to South Africa’s geostrategic drift,” he said, referring to Pretoria’s close ties with U.S. Rivals such as Iran, with whom it conducted joint naval exercises in January. He also announced his intention to promote a refugee program for white or Afrikaner citizens wishing to relocate to the United States and to pressure South Africa to put an end to alleged crimes against the white minority.

The arrival in South Africa of this openly ultraconservative figure is seen less as an effort to ease tensions and more as yet another twist in the bilateral crisis — or even a provocation. The ambassadorship in Pretoria had remained vacant since Trump entered the White House in November 2024, while Washington expelled South Africa’s representative in the United States last March following the ICC complaint. The South African government has accepted the appointment, and Bozell is expected to receive his credentials from President Cyril Ramaphosa next April, according to a government source cited by Agence France-Presse.

The United States is South Africa’s second most important trading partner after China. According to the South African Ministry of Trade, the main exports to North America were platinum, precious metals, motor vehicles, and diamonds, while imports focused on machinery, mineral fuels, chemicals, and vehicles. However, the protectionist measures imposed by Trump, with tariffs reaching up to 30% in South Africa’s case, have reduced this trade flow. The widening political differences between the two countries are making bilateral agreements increasingly difficult to secure.