US President Donald Trump has nominated a conservative activist and father to one of an estimated 1,600 people charged with storming the US Capitol on January 6 2021 as the new US ambassador to SA.
Leo Brent Bozell III now heads the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which owns the government-backed media house Voice of America. He is the founder of Media Research Centre, whose mandate is to expose liberal bias in the media.
In March, Trump moved to defund the USAGM, which oversees news agencies, paving the way for Bozell to be nominated as the US top diplomat to SA.
Bozell’s nomination comes as tensions between SA and the US escalate, with Trump administration members and right-wing groups in SA fanning the flames of misinformation, which has led to Washington halting funding to SA. Trump has been critical of SA’s move to haul Israel before the International Criminal Court , accusing it of genocide in Gaza.
Though seeking remedies to the deterioration of relations between the two countries, SA authorities have emphasised that the country will not change its domestic or foreign policies to suit the new US administration. SA is, however, seeking to reset its relations with the US, which has pushed for transactional trade deals and a clampdown on immigration.
Bozell’s nomination, which was published on the US state website, has been referred to the US Senate committee on foreign relations for consideration.
The committee is chaired by Jim Risch, who has previously pushed for SA to be kicked out of the programme that allows Sub-Saharan countries to have access to US markets through the African Growth & Opportunity Act (Agoa). In his 2023 submission to the committee, Risch cited SA’s perceived closeness to US adversary Russia as a reason for the Agoa forum to be moved from Johannesburg.
Though Risch failed and the 2023 Agoa Forum went ahead in SA, the Trump administration’s antagonistic stance towards SA has renewed fears among organised business and leaders in the government that SA will be expelled from the programme by September, the month for its next renewal.
Should Bozell be appointed as the next US ambassador to SA, he would replace Democrat Reuben Brigety, who resigned from the position in December ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
Brigety’s tenure was marred by tension between SA and the US, during which he publicly accused SA of supplying arms to Russia. He said he would bet his life that SA loaded weapons to Russia on board the Lady R after offloading the armaments ordered by the SA National Defence Force.
While the Russian origins of the vessel and Brigety’s allegations about the cargo were the main points of contention all along, an independent panel chaired by retired Supreme Court of Appeal judge Phineas Mojapelo found that the only consignment delivered was from the United Arab Emirates and not from Russia.
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