The incumbent US ambassador to South Africa, Leo Brent Bozell III, is expected to seek significant concessions from Pretoria during his term amid deteriorating relations between the two countries, according to Ofentse Donald Davhie.
The political risk and foreign policy analyst at the Centre for Risk Analysis made the remarks in an interview with broadcaster Newzroom Afrika on Monday.
”He does come with an ideological stance. He comes from a long lineage of a conservative family. His father was a conservative activist. His one uncle was a conservative writer who founded a very famous magazine focused on the right-wing political agenda. His other uncle, as well, served as a conservative senator from New York, which is rare, and also served under the Reagan administration,” said Davhie.
“So this, coupled with the Trump administration, he is here to extract concessions, he is not here to make any new friends. It is going to be a clash, of course, ideologically between the conservative Trump administration and the left-leaning ANC-run coalition government.
”However, you must remember the role of a diplomat. Even though Mr Bozell has never served in the foreign service, nor has he even lived on the African continent, the role of a diplomat is to both promote the interests of the home country and also strengthen relations with the host country.
”Despite the ideological clash that is looming, he is going to try to find middle ground between the two parties at hand, which are South Africa and the United States, but to be more specific, the White House and Luthuli House, because that is where the true political impasse lies,” he said.
Davhie noted that when Bozell arrives in South Africa, his presence will present an opportunity for both countries to meet halfway. In Davhie’s view, Bozell is not arriving with the intention of further deteriorating the relationship.
Last week, IOL reported that the United States Senate formally confirmed Bozell as the US ambassador-designate to South Africa. The move transitions his controversial “priority list” from the campaign of a nominee to the official mandate of a confirmed envoy.
The 53–43 party-line vote on 18 December 2025 came at what diplomats describe as the most dangerous crossroads in bilateral relations since 1994. While Bozell now holds the title of ambassador-designate, he enters a mission currently engulfed in a diplomatic firestorm following a raid at a US “refugee” facility in Johannesburg and the subsequent deportation of Kenyan staff—incidents Washington has labelled “unacceptable harassment.”
In October, IOL reported that Bozell had issued a warning, stating that Washington believes Pretoria is moving closer to China and promising to halt what he called South Africa’s “geostrategic drift” in the direction of America’s international rivals.
At the time, Bozell promised to “communicate our objections to South Africa’s geostrategic drift from non-alignment toward our competitors, including Russia, China, and Iran” if appointed as Washington’s top diplomat in Pretoria during his appearance before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.