US Ambassador Leo Bozell III calls on President Cyril Ramaphosa to condemn ‘Kill the Boer’ chant

United States Ambassador to South Africa, Leo Brent Bozell, has issued a stark diplomatic ultimatum to President Cyril Ramaphosa, warning that Washington and Pretoria face a “fundamental problem” if he refuses to publicly condemn the struggle chant Kill the Boer.

Speaking to SABC News, Bozell insisted the phrase is viewed globally as an incitement to violence, regardless of local court rulings.

If you can’t say that Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer is an incitement to violence, then we have a fundamental problem. The entire world sees that phrase as an incitement to violence.

Bozell said Washington had asked Ramaphosa to condemn the chant and had not asked South Africa to disregard the courts. He noted that the United States had presented South Africa with five “asks” in December 2025, covering the US refugee programme, expropriation without compensation, the “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer” chant, rural farm safety and economic participation by US companies.

We made these asks in December of 2025. Nine months later, South Africa still had not responded.

Bozell also defended Washington’s concerns about violence affecting farming communities, saying the US wanted to work with the South African government on rural safety. He said he had recently spoken to a farmer who told him he had been attacked and now slept with a gun.

I would say that crime in South Africa is horrific. No one’s going to disagree with me on that. Our position, and we stated this to the government, is that we are particularly concerned about rural farming communities where there is limited police activity.