US restricts visas for South Africans over land law

Rubio cites race-based discrimination, land expropriation threats

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced visa restrictions Tuesday on South Africans responsible for the country’s land expropriation law, the latest escalation in the White House’s pressure campaign against South Africa over policies it views as race-based discrimination.

President Donald Trump has focused on South Africa over the land expropriation law, part of the country’s efforts to redress inequity in land ownership stemming from decades of racial dispossession under colonialism and apartheid. A 2017 land audit report found that white South Africans, who account for less than 7.3% of the population, owned 72% of farms and agricultural holdings held by individuals, while Black Africans owned 4%.

The law, which is not yet operational, allows authorities to expropriate land if it is in the public interests and permits zero compensation in few specified circumstances when it is just and equitable.

On Tuesday, Rubio said the United States remains concerned about “government-sponsored discrimination occurring against the Afrikaners,” an Afrikaans-speaking white ethnic group. He specifically mentioned “race-based discriminatory legislation” and “threats of land expropriation without compensation,” as well as “incitement of racial violence through dehumanizing chants and slogans.” The reference appeared to relate in part to “Kill the Boer,” an apartheid-era protest song often sung by Julius Malema, leader of the Marxist-Leninist Economic Freedom Fighters political party, and his supporters. The Trump administration has previously criticized use of the song.

The visa restrictions will target foreign nationals responsible for, or complicit in, enacting or implementing laws or policies that enable uncompensated land seizures, race-based discrimination, or the incitement of imminent violence against members of minority ethnic or racial groups in South Africa.

“The United States will not allow such behavior to go unchecked,” Rubio said in a statement. “These actions directly undermine peace, economic stability and the rule of law, and they are incompatible with the pillars of America’s foreign policy.”

The United States has been particularly focused on South Africa under the second Trump administration. Trump signed an executive order within his weeks in office to cut U.S. assistance to the country and prioritize Afrikaners for refugee relief and resettlement, with the first group arriving in the United States in May 2025.

Trump has repeatedly alleged that white South Africans are being killed and having their land taken, going so far as to describe the situation in South Africa as a “genocide,” despite a lack of evidence supporting that claim.