The United States has announced a new visa restriction policy targeting foreign nationals it says are responsible for or involved in policies enabling uncompensated land seizures, racial discrimination or incitement of violence against minority groups in South Africa.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the measure on Tuesday, September 15, saying Washington believed the South African Government had failed to adequately address concerns previously raised by the Trump administration.

The policy is being introduced under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the US Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the Secretary of State to declare a foreign national inadmissible where their entry could have serious consequences for US foreign policy.

According to Rubio, the restrictions can apply to people Washington considers responsible for or complicit in implementing laws or policies that permit uncompensated land expropriation, race-based discrimination or incitement of imminent violence against racial or ethnic minorities.

Certain immediate family members of affected individuals may also fall under the restrictions.

The announcement represents another escalation in already strained relations between Washington and Pretoria.

The Trump administration has repeatedly criticised South Africa's land reform programme and policies designed to address racial inequality, arguing that some measures discriminate against Afrikaners and other minorities.

South Africa has strongly rejected that interpretation.

President Cyril Ramaphosa's government has maintained that the country's Expropriation Act is intended to provide a constitutional framework for land reform and does not amount to arbitrary confiscation of private property.

South African authorities have also said no land was confiscated following the passage of the legislation and that land acquired for restitution and redistribution had continued to be handled through legal processes.

South Africa's land question remains deeply connected to the country's history of apartheid and racial dispossession.

The government says land reform is intended to address historical inequalities created when Black South Africans were denied ownership and access to large areas of land.

Pretoria argues that the Expropriation Act provides legal safeguards while allowing the state to pursue redistribution and public-interest projects under the country's Constitution.

Washington, however, has taken an increasingly confrontational position.

Rubio said the United States remained concerned about what it considers discriminatory legislation, possible uncompensated expropriation and inflammatory rhetoric targeting minority communities.

He said such actions could undermine economic stability, the rule of law and US foreign-policy interests.

The South African Government has previously described similar allegations from the United States as inaccurate and based on misinformation, while insisting it remains committed to engagement with Washington.