White House accuses South Africa of harassing US gov’t staff in latest row

Trump has repeatedly targeted South Africa, including baselessly claiming systemic persecution of white Afrikaners.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has lobbed its latest salvo against the government in South Africa, accusing officials of harassing and doxxing staff working with white Afrikaners.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the charge on Thursday, a day after South Africa expelled seven Kenyan nationals brought into the country with the help of the US to process Afrikaner relocations.

South Africa has maintained that individuals who entered the country on tourist visas are therefore ineligible to work.

In a statement, Rubio alleged that US nationals had also been briefly detained in the imbroglio, a move Washington “condemns in the strongest terms”.

He added that officials’ passport information had been leaked, in what he called “an unacceptable form of harassment” that risked putting the individuals “in harm’s way”.

“Failure by the South African Government to hold those responsible accountable will result in severe consequences,” he said.

South Africa has said no US officials were arrested in the raid, which was not carried out at a diplomatic site. South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation said the US employing workers with the proper documentation “raises serious questions about intent and diplomatic protocol”.

The Trump administration has for months heaped pressure on the government of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, claiming it tacitly supports the persecution of white Afrikaner farmers in the country. The allegations had previously gained traction in far-right circles.

Ramaphosa has roundly rejected the claims, with top elected officials, including Afrikaner leaders, decrying the allegations as misinformation at a raucous White House gathering in May.

Nevertheless, the Trump administration has continued to relocate members of the Afrikaner community via the US refugee programme.

That comes as the administration has staunched refugee admittances for nearly all other nationalities, dropping admittances to a historic low of 7,500 for 2026, in what rights groups have decried as blatant racism.

The Trump administration has previously expelled South Africa’s ambassador to the US, boycotted the G20 summit in Johannesburg and excluded South Africa from attending the event next year in Miami.