When Brent Bozell III prepared to land in South Africa last week, he may have expected to find a country engaged in genocide against its minority White population. What he found was a Constitutional democracy.
This is according to Professor Garth Le Pere, an international relations expert at the Johannesburg-based Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA). In an interview with Salaamedia on Tuesday, Le Pere said Bozell faced a “steep learning curve” ahead.
“Brent Bozell is here to advance a certain kind of ideological agenda. He will discover very quickly that South Africa is a very different place from that what was depicted by Donald Trump,” he said of the United States’s new ambassador to SA.
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Since returning to the White House in 2025, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly alleged White South Africans are being persecuted. He has also objected to the country’s non-aligned stance on the basis of its relationship with Russia, Iran and China.
According to Le Pere, Bozell will encounter a different reality. “He will have to undergo a socialisation process to understand the nature of our politics [and] the nature of our government. He will have to understand the sociology of this country … that there are certain underlying imperatives that shape how we conduct our national discourse and he will have to fit into that.”
Bozell presented his letters of credence to Clayson Monyela, deputy director-general of the department of international relations and co-operation, on Monday. He replaced Reuben Earl Brigety II, who resigned just over a year ago.
Image: Deputy Director-General (DDG), Mr Clayson Monyela, Acting Chief of State Protocol, receiving copies of Letters of Credence from His Excellency L Brent Bozell III, United States Ambassador to South Africa. Credit: DIRCO
