It could take up to a year before US President Donald Trump’s pick for ambassador to SA, Leo Brent Bozell, hands his accreditation papers to President Cyril Ramaphosa as the process for confirming a US ambassador is lengthy.
His nomination will have to undergo numerous processes in the US before he is appointed. Over the next few weeks, Bozell will appear before the Senate foreign relations committee, where a vote will be taken to confirm his nomination.
Bozell’s nomination comes at a time when relations between SA and the US are at an all-time low with former SA ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool confirming that his attempts to sell SA to the Trump administration were met with resistance.
Rasool was expelled and declared persona non grata by US secretary of state Marco Rubio earlier in March for linking the US administration to global white supremacist views.
Trump’s previous appointee as US ambassador to SA, Lana Marks, was confirmed 14 months after Trump nominated her for the post.
East London born Marks was nominated by Trump in November 2018 and underwent background checks and financial disclosure before being confirmed by the US Senate in September 2019.
In October of the same year she was sworn in and presented her credentials to Ramaphosa in January 2020.
Bozell, who was nominated by Trump earlier this week, is expected to undergo a similar process before he assumes his official duties.
Similarly to Marks, Bozell is not a career diplomat but rather a conservative media critic who has focused his career on exposing liberal media bias.
He is also a fierce supporter of Israel, which could be a source of contention between him and the SA government which has hauled Israel before the International Criminal Court, accusing it of genocide in Gaza.
“It is only logical to assume that President Trump’s decision to nominate Mr Bozell reveals that they are aligned ideologically and that the nominee will advance his policy orientation towards SA and by extension, the African nations,” political analyst Itumeleng Makgetla said.
“A measure of the impact of his [Bozell’s] nomination will be how he will handle the upcoming review of the African Growth and Opportunity Act later this year,” he said.
“Another determining factor will be how he can navigate the difficult process of resolving the Israel and Palestine conflict as well as the Russia and Ukraine war, [in] both of which Washington DC and Pretoria have deep vested interests.
“It is highly unlikely that this relationship will return to its original dimension, however this could present an opportunity for a better outcome for both partners, provided that restraint and caution are exercised in the negotiations,” Makgetla said.
Bozell heads the US Agency for Global Media, which owns the government-backed media house Voice of America. In February, Trump moved to defund the agency which he described as “radical propaganda”.
“I don’t see Trump and his advisers caring much about Africa, beyond its minerals,” said international relations expert John Stremlau.
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