Lamola pushes back on US visa restrictions as bilateral talks continue
The International Relations Minister says the dispute will be settled at the negotiating table, not by unilateral measures, as talks between the two governments carry on.
International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola has noted with concern the unilateral visa restrictions announced by his United States counterpart, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and has urged Washington to respect South Africa’s democracy and sovereignty.
The ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the announcement aligns with the mischaracterisation of South Africa’s domestic policies by fringe groups who wrongly portray themselves as representatives of minorities and of Afrikaners in general.
It is a pointed reply, and it comes as the two governments remain in talks. According to the ministry, those discussions show how much weight both sides place on finding a lasting solution, and they have made one thing clear. Any resolution has to account for South Africa’s circumstances and respect its democracy, its constitution, its sovereignty and the will of its people.
The law at the centre of it
The ministry grounded its answer in the Constitution and in legislation. Healing the divisions of the past and building a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights is a constitutional imperative, it said. Laws passed in the democratic era are intended to improve the position of people who were excluded for centuries, and the ministry noted that other countries with a similar history have done the same.
It also named the instrument that governs hate speech and hate crimes in South Africa. The Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act 16 of 2023 sets a stringent legal framework for eradicating hate speech and prosecuting hate crimes, and it is binding on the state and on non-state actors alike.
“It is our sovereign right to put in place laws that address the nation’s concern over centuries of racial injustice.”
That line, from the ministry’s statement, is the core of the government’s position. South Africa respects that the United States may hold different views on particular measures and how they are carried out, the ministry said. It added that South Africans respect the right of the American people to develop laws to address their own conditions, and that it expects the same respect in return, because sovereignty demands it.
Crime, and who it affects
The government also addressed the question of crime directly. It said it remains seized with the challenges of crime in South Africa, and that crime affects everyone and does not target anyone on the basis of race, colour or social origin. That is a factual claim about the character of crime in this country, and it goes to the heart of the disagreement.
The ministry was clear about how it wants the dispute handled. Challenges in the bilateral relationship with the United States can only be resolved by constructive engagement through state actors on both sides of the diplomatic channel, it said, and not by unilateral acts.
That is the position the government is taking into the ongoing talks, and it is a position with a legal and constitutional basis rather than a rhetorical one. The statement cites the Constitution, the Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act, and South Africa’s commitments under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
What this means for South Africans
Visa restrictions of this kind are felt by ordinary people, not by ministries. They affect South Africans who travel for work, for study, for family and for business, and they affect the companies and universities that host them. The government’s stated aim in the talks is to resolve the matter through the diplomatic channel, and that is where the next move sits.
The ministry’s statement does not set out a deadline or a date for the next round of discussions. It records that the talks are ongoing and that both sides attach importance to them. Until those talks produce an outcome, the restrictions announced by Secretary Rubio stand, and the government’s answer to them is the one set out this week.
This report is based on the statement issued by the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation and carried by SAnews, the South African Government News Agency. The statement is a summary of the government’s position rather than the full diplomatic record, and it does not reproduce the text of the visa restrictions themselves.
Source: SAnews (South African Government News Agency), SA urges respect for democracy and sovereignty following latest US statements on domestic policy, https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/sa-urges-respect-democracy-and-sovereignty-following-latest-us-statements-domestic
