U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Leo Brent Bozell said in an X post that recent U.S. visa restrictions on South African nationals were "only ​the first ⁠step in a series of escalatory measures" in response to Pretoria's lack of "care" for having "strong and lasting" relations with the United States, Reuters reported on Sept. 16. The day before, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a new visa restriction policy over "foreign nationals who are responsible for, or ​complicit in, the enactment or implementation of laws or policies that enable uncompensated land seizures, ​race-based discrimination, and/or the incitement of imminent violence against members of minority ethnic or racial groups in South Africa."