The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the “U.S.-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act of 2025” (HR 2633) on July 22, with 34 of its members voting for it, 16 against, with one absent and not voting. Every Republican member of the committee but the absent one voted for its passage, joined by seven Democratic members. The next legislative step is to bring it to the House floor for a vote after the summer recess. Should it become law, it would “require a full review of the bilateral relationship with South Africa and identify South African government officials and ANC leaders eligible for the imposition of sanctions, and for other purposes.”
The bill is preposterous. Its “findings” section is a long tirade against the current South African government and the ANC party which South Africans have chosen to lead their government since Nelson Mandela headed the first post-apartheid government in 1994. South Africa is declared to be have undermined “United States national security and foreign policy interests” by daring to charge Israel with committing genocide before the International Court of Justice at The Hague and calling out its “apartheid” system against Palestinians, and by its maintaining normal relations with Russia, China and Iran. South Africa’s participation in the Belt and Road Initiative is cited as another example of how South Africa “undermines” U.S. national security. Former Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor is singled out five times in this section of the bill. Tagged on at the end are charges of domestic corruption and malfeasance having nothing to do with the United States, a blatant effort to provide another pretext for sanctioning ANC leaders.
Foreign Affairs Committee chair Brian Mast (R-FL) made clear that the bill is to set a precedent for going after other members of the BRICS nation. In endorsing the bill at the committee hearing, he added “aligning with de-dollarization” as another reason justifying calling into question U.S. relations with “any nation” which engages in activities which “undermine U.S. national security or foreign policy interests.”
