Washington’s most senior diplomat in Pretoria has accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of refusing to condemn “an incitement to kill,” in an exclusive Fox News Digital interview. The interview came after South Africa summoned Ambassador L. Brent
Bozell III over “undiplomatic conduct” — his third official rebuke in nine months — and he warned the country is drifting toward Iran, Russia, China and Hamas.
What happened
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital published 4 October 2026, US Ambassador to South Africa L. Brent Bozell III launched an unusually direct attack on the host government he is posted to, saying: “You’ve got a president of South Africa who refuses to condemn an incitement to kill.”
Why he was summoned
Bozell was responding after South Africa’s foreign ministry summoned him this past week and formally criticised him for “undiplomatic conduct.” It is the third démarche — the diplomatic term for a formal rebuke — Pretoria has lodged against him in the roughly nine months since he arrived. The earlier summons centred on his public comments on the “Kill the Boer” chant, according to Semafor’s reporting on Pretoria’s summoning pattern.
What he was rebuked for
Bozell has made no secret of relaying President Donald Trump’s objections to South African policy — specifically the government’s land seizure and apartheid-redress measures. In late September he warned those measures were barriers to capital and pointed to a potential freeze in US investment, and in late September Pretoria hauled him in again over criticism of post-apartheid laws.
The broader charge
Beyond the chant, Bozell argued South Africa is strategically drifting toward nations hostile to Washington — naming Iran, Russia and China, along with Hamas — reframing a bilateral spat as a geopolitical alignment question rather than a protocol dispute.
Why it matters
Démarches are meant to be private instruments of disagreement. That the third one triggered a public counter-offensive from the ambassador signals that US–South Africa relations have moved from quiet friction to open confrontation — with consequences for trade, investment signalling, and diplomatic access in Pretoria. Ramaphosa’s office had not publicly answered the “refusal to condemn” charge at publication.
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