International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola has taken a defiant stand against the US, defending SA’s decision to drag Israel to the International Court of Justice over its war in Gaza.
Addressing an event in honour of the United Nations Charter in New York this week, Lamola declared that South Africa would not be bullied into silence by powerful states, despite the diplomatic and economic cost of confronting Israel and its backers, including the US.
“Interest by going against such powerful states and all those who back them? Should you not rather make cold calculations based on your national balance sheet and trade?” Lamola asked.
“But we choose to act because silence is not golden. In the face of grave injustice, silence is complicity.”
Lamola’s remarks come as relations between Pretoria and Washington have collapsed to their lowest point in decades.
Since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House last year, the US has expelled South Africa’s ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, revoked the visa of former foreign minister Naledi Pandor – who was instrumental in bringing the ICJ case – offered Afrikaners refugee status, and falsely accused Pretoria of white genocide.
Trump administration officials have repeatedly criticised South Africa’s ICJ case, which accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza. Pandor’s visa revocation is widely seen as direct retaliation for that case.
Lamola, who was in Washington trying to rebuild ties, used the platform to frame South Africa’s stance as a moral duty rooted in its own history.
“As one of the 20th century’s greatest beneficiaries of international solidarity, we have no choice but to act despite trial and challenges we face as a result of our choice to act in defence of humanity,” he said.
“Today we declare that indeed we are many. Our numbers are growing. We will not move. We shall not be moved.”
He closed his address by invoking the spirit of Sophiatown, the Johannesburg township whose residents resisted forced removals under apartheid more than 70 years ago.
“Let me conclude by borrowing another rallying cry from the people of Sophiatown, South Africa, who, a little over 70 years ago, took racial segregation head-on and declared in the face of apartheid’s bulldozers: We will not move,” Lamola said.
The speech immediately drew fire from Washington’s new envoy to Pretoria.
US Ambassador Leo Brent Bozell III, speaking on national radio, called Lamola’s remarks “disappointing” and blamed the minister for the deadlock.
“It’s disappointing to hear him say what he says, and then he wondered why he hit a brick wall when it came to Washington. Well, that’s why,” Bozell said.
Bozell, who has been in South Africa for six months, said he was impressed with South African people but not with the government, singling out Lamola as unhelpful in negotiations.
“There are those in the government who have been quite reasonable, and not just reasonable, but helpful in the discussions that we’ve had. But there are others, like Foreign Minister Lamola, who have not,” he said.
Bozell claimed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent letter to Trump had failed to meet Washington’s five “reasonable” demands, which reportedly include changes to South Africa’s empowerment and land reform policies. Business Day reported that Bozell has even suggested former President Thabo Mbeki would be better placed to break the impasse – a suggestion Mbeki has not responded to.
The envoy also refused to directly answer whether he believed there was a genocide against Afrikaners in South Africa, despite Trump’s repeated claims of land grabs and targeted killings of white farmers.
“I’m not going to go where you want to go… all I have focused on is the five asks and nowhere in those asks is the word genocide. And there’s my answer,” Bozell said.
Lamola also used his Washington visit to push back against Trump’s Afrikaner resettlement programme, accusing the US of applying a “race-based approach” to asylum.
South Africa filed the case at the ICJ in December 2023, arguing that Israel’s actions in Gaza violate the Genocide Convention.
The court has since issued provisional measures ordering Israel to prevent genocidal acts and allow humanitarian aid.
Pretoria argues it cannot credibly call out apartheid-era injustices at home while remaining silent on what it sees as similar injustices abroad.