I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2633
To require a full review of the bilateral relationship between the United
States and South Africa and identify South African government officials
and ANC leaders eligible for the imposition of sanctions, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL3, 2025
Mr. J
ACKSONof Texas (for himself and Mr. JAMES) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in ad-
dition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provi-
sions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To require a full review of the bilateral relationship between
the United States and South Africa and identify South
African government officials and ANC leaders eligible
for the imposition of sanctions, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘U.S.-South Africa Bi-4
lateral Relations Review Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1
Congress finds the following: 2
(1) The actions of factions within the African 3
National Congress (ANC), the political party that 4
since 1994 has held a governing majority and con-5
trolled South Africa’s executive branch, are incon-6
sistent with the South African Government’s publicly 7
stated policy of nonalignment in international af-8
fairs. 9
(2) The South African Government has a his-10
tory of siding with malign actors, including Hamas, 11
a United States designated Foreign Terrorist Orga-12
nization and a proxy of the Iranian regime, and con-13
tinues to pursue closer ties with the People’s Repub-14
lic of China (PRC) and the Russian Federation. 15
(3) The South African Government’s support of 16
Hamas dates back to 1994, when the ANC first 17
came into power, taking a hardline stance of consist-18
ently accusing Israel of practicing apartheid. 19
(4) Following the unprovoked and unprece-20
dented horrendous attack by Hamas on Israel on 21
October 7, 2023, where Hamas terrorists killed and 22
kidnapped hundreds of Israelis, members of the 23
South African Government and leaders of the ANC 24
have delivered a variety of antisemitic and anti- 25
Israel-related statements and actions, including— 26
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(A) on October 7, 2023, South Africa’s 1
Foreign Ministry released a statement express-2
ing concern of ‘‘escalating violence’’, urging 3
Israel’s restraint in response, and implicitly 4
blaming Israel for provoking the attack through 5
‘‘continued illegal occupation of Palestine land, 6
continued settlement expansion, desecration of 7
the Al Aqsa Mosque and Christian holy sites, 8
and ongoing oppression of the Palestinian peo-9
ple’’; 10
(B) on October 8, 2023, the ANC’s na-11
tional spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, 12
said of the devastating Hamas attack, ‘‘the de-13
cision by Palestinians to respond to the bru-14
tality of the settler Israeli apartheid regime is 15
unsurprising’’; 16
(C) on October 14, 2023, President Cyril 17
Ramaphosa of South Africa, accused Israel of 18
‘‘genocide’’ in statements during a pro-Pales-19
tinian rally; 20
(D) on October 17, 2023, South African 21
Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor accepted a call 22
with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh; 23
(E) on October 22, 2023, South African 24
Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor visited Tehran 25
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and met with President Raisi of the Islamic Re-1
public of Iran, which is actively funding Hamas; 2
(F) on November 7, 2023, in a parliamen-3
tary address, Foreign Minister Pandor called 4
for the International Criminal Court to issue an 5
immediate arrest warrant charging Israeli 6
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with vio-7
lations of international criminal law; 8
(G) on November 17, 2023, South Africa, 9
along with 4 other countries, submitted a joint 10
request to the International Criminal Court for 11
an investigation into alleged war crimes being 12
committed in the Palestinian territories; 13
(H) on December 5, 2023, the ANC hosted 14
3 members of Hamas in Pretoria, including 15
Khaled Qaddoumi, Hamas’s representative to 16
Iran, and Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’s 17
political bureau in Gaza; 18
(I) on December 29, 2023, South Africa 19
filed a politically motivated suit in the Inter-20
national Court of Justice wrongfully accusing 21
Israel of committing genocide; 22
(J) in March 2024, South African Foreign 23
Minister Pandor was quoted saying South Afri-24
ca will arrest Israeli-South Africans who are 25
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fighting in the Israeli Defense Forces upon 1
their return home and could strip them of their 2
South African citizenship. Minister Pandor also 3
implicitly encouraged protests outside of the 4
United States Embassy; 5
(K) on October 7, 2024, the ANC com-6
memorated only the Palestinian lives lost to 7
Israel, while accusing Israel of genocide; 8
(L) in October 2024, South Africa filed its 9
Memorial to the International Court of Justice, 10
accusing Israel of genocidal actions to depopu-11
late Gaza through mass death and displace-12
ment; 13
(M) in November 2024, South Africa ap-14
pointed Ebrahim Rasool as their Ambassador to 15
the United States, who previously hosted senior 16
Hamas officials to South Africa when he was 17
the Premier of the Western Cape and, in 2020, 18
was a speaker at an annual event hosted by the 19
Iranian regime to celebrate Hezbollah’s resist-20
ance against Israel; and 21
(N) the ANC’s ongoing attempt to rename 22
the street that the United States Consulate in 23
Johannesburg is located on as ‘‘Leila Khaled 24
Drive’’, including a quote from ANC first Dep-25
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uty Secretary General Nomvula Mokonyane 1
saying ‘‘we want the United States of America 2
embassy to change their letterhead to Number 3
1 Leila Khaled Drive’’. 4
(5) The South African Government and the 5
ANC have maintained close relations with the Rus-6
sian Federation, which has been accused of perpe-7
trating war crimes in Ukraine and indiscriminately 8
undermines human rights. South Africa’s robust re-9
lationship with Russia spans the military and polit-10
ical space, including— 11
(A) allowing a United States-sanctioned 12
Russian cargo ship, the Lady R, to dock and 13
transfer arms at a South African naval base in 14
December 2022; 15
(B) hosting offshore naval exercises, enti-16
tled ‘‘Operation Mosi II’’, carried out jointly 17
with the PRC and Russia, between February 17 18
and 27, 2023, corresponding with the 1-year 19
anniversary of Russia’s unjustified and 20
unprovoked invasion of Ukraine; 21
(C) authorizing a United States-sanctioned 22
Russian military cargo airplane to land at a 23
South African Air Force Base; 24
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(D) reneging on its initial call for the Rus-1
sian Federation to immediately withdraw its 2
forces from Ukraine and actively seeking im-3
proved relations with Moscow since February 4
2022; 5
(E) dispatching multiple high-level official 6
delegations to Russia to further political, intel-7
ligence, and military cooperation; 8
(F) United States sanctioned oligarch 9
Viktor Vekselberg donating $826,000 to the 10
ANC in 2022; and 11
(G) the ANC publishing an article in their 12
newspaper, ANC Today, in October 2024 pro-13
moting Russian propaganda about the war in 14
Ukraine. 15
(6) South African Government interactions with 16
the PRC Government and ANC interactions with the 17
Chinese Communist Party (CCP), who are commit-18
ting gross violations of human rights in the Xinjiang 19
province and implement economically coercive tactics 20
around the globe, undermine South Africa’s demo-21
cratic constitutional system of governance, as exem-22
plified in— 23
(A) ongoing ANC and CCP inter-party co-24
operation, especially with the fundamental in-25
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compatibility between the civil and democratic 1
rights guaranteed in South Africa’s Constitu-2
tion and the CCP’s routine suppression of free 3
expression and individual rights; 4
(B) allowing the private Test Flying Acad-5
emy of South Africa, which the Department of 6
Commerce added to the Entity List on June 7
12, 2023, to recruit former United States and 8
NATO fighter pilots to train Chinese People’s 9
Liberation Army pilots; 10
(C) South Africa’s hosting of 6 PRC Gov-11
ernment-backed and CCP-linked Confucius In-12
stitutes, a type of entity that a CCP official 13
characterized as an ‘‘important part of the 14
CCP’s external propaganda structure’’, the 15
most of any country in Africa; 16
(D) South African Government support 17
for, and ANC participation in, a political train-18
ing school opened in Tanzania funded by the 19
Chinese Communist Party where it trains polit-20
ical members of the ruling liberation movements 21
in 6 Southern African countries. The school in-22
stills CCP ideology into the next-generation of 23
African leaders and attempts to export the 24
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CCP’s system of party-run authoritarian gov-1
ernance to the African continent; 2
(E) cooperation with the PRC under the 3
PRC’s global Belt and Road Initiative which, 4
while trade and infrastructure-focused, is de-5
signed to expand PRC global economic, polit-6
ical, and security sector-related influence; 7
(F) the widespread presence in South Afri-8
ca’s media and technology sectors of PRC state 9
linked firms that the United States has re-10
stricted due to threats to national security, in-11
cluding Huawei Technologies, ZTE and 12
Hikvision, which place South African sov-13
ereignty at risk and facilitate the CCP’s export 14
of its model of digitally aided authoritarian gov-15
ernance underpinned by cyber controls, social 16
monitoring, propaganda, and surveillance; and 17
(G) the South African government’s clear 18
appeasement to the CCP in demanding that 19
Taiwan relocate its representative office out of 20
Pretoria and downgrade its status to that of a 21
trade office. 22
(7) The ANC-led South African Government 23
has a history of substantially mismanaging a range 24
of state resources and has often proven incapable of 25
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effectively delivering public services, threatening the 1
South African people and the South African econ-2
omy, as illustrated by— 3
(A) President Cyril Ramaphosa’s February 4
9, 2023, declaration of a national state of dis-5
aster over the worsening, multi-year power cri-6
sis caused by the ANC’s chronic mismanage-7
ment of the state-owned power company 8
Eskom, resulting from endemic, high-level cor-9
ruption; 10
(B) the persistence of South African state- 11
owned railway company Transnet’s insufficient 12
capacity, which has disrupted rail operations 13
and hindered mining companies’ export of iron 14
ore, coal, and other commodities, in part due to 15
malfeasance and corruption by former Transnet 16
officials; 17
(C) outbreaks of cholera in 2023 and 18
2024, the worst in 15 years, which were due in 19
part to the South African Government’s disease 20
prevention failures, as President Ramaphosa 21
admitted on June 9, 2023, including a failure 22
to provide clean water to households; and 23
(D) rampant state capture, that emerged 24
and grew during the administration of former 25
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President Jacob Zuma and has damaged South 1
Africa’s international standing and profoundly 2
undermined the rule of law, continues to nega-3
tively impact the economic development pros-4
pects and living standards of the South African 5
people while deeply damaging public trust in 6
state governance. 7
(8) In November 2024, South Africa appointed 8
Ebrahim Rasool as Ambassador to the United 9
States. Rasool had previously made public comments 10
describing President Trump as ‘‘extreme’’ and in 11
March 2025, Rasool characterized President Trump 12
as ‘‘a white supremacist’’. Secretary of State Marco 13
Rubio subsequently declared Rasool as persona non 14
grata in the United States. 15
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 16
It is the sense of Congress that— 17
(1) it is in the national security interest of the 18
United States to deter strategic political and secu-19
rity cooperation and information sharing with the 20
PRC and the Russian Federation, particularly any 21
form of cooperation that may aid or abet Russia’s 22
war of aggression on Ukraine or its international 23
standing or influence; and 24
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(2) the South African Government’s foreign pol-1
icy actions have long ceased to reflect its stated 2
stance of nonalignment, and now directly favor the 3
PRC, the Russian Federation, and Hamas, a known 4
proxy of Iran, and thereby undermine United States 5
national security and foreign policy interests. 6
SEC. 4. PRESIDENTIAL CERTIFICATION OF DETERMINA-7
TION WITH RESPECT TO SOUTH AFRICA. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after the 9
date of enactment of this Act, the President, in consulta-10
tion with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of De-11
fense, shall certify to the appropriate congressional com-12
mittees and release publicly an unclassified determination 13
explicitly stating whether South Africa has engaged in ac-14
tivities that undermine United States national security or 15
foreign policy interests. 16
(b) A
CCOMPANYINGREPORT.—The certification re-17
quired by subsection (a) shall be accompanied by an un-18
classified report submitted to the appropriate congres-19
sional committees, with a classified annex if necessary, 20
providing the justification for the determination. 21
SEC. 5. FULL REVIEW OF THE BILATERAL RELATIONSHIP. 22
(a) B
ILATERALRELATIONSHIPREVIEW.—The Presi-23
dent, in consultation with the Secretary of State, the Sec-24
retary of Defense, the United States Trade Representa-25
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tive, and the heads of other Federal departments and 1
agencies that play a substantial role in United States rela-2
tions with South Africa, shall conduct a comprehensive re-3
view of the bilateral relationship between the United 4
States and South Africa. 5
(b) R
EPORT ONFINDINGS.—Not later than 120 days 6
after the date of enactment of this Act, the President shall 7
submit to the appropriate congressional committees a re-8
port that includes the findings of the review required by 9
subsection (a). 10
SEC. 6. REPORT ON SANCTIONABLE PERSONS. 11
Not later than 120 days after the date of the enact-12
ment of this Act, the President, in consultation with the 13
Secretary of State and the Secretary of Treasury, shall 14
submit to the appropriate congressional committees a clas-15
sified report that includes— 16
(1) a list of senior South African government 17
officials and ANC leaders the President determines 18
have engaged in corruption or human rights abuses 19
that would be sufficient, based on credible evidence, 20
to meet the criteria for the imposition of sanctions 21
pursuant to the authorities provided by the Global 22
Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (22 23
U.S.C. 10101 et seq.); and 24
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(2) with respect to each person identified pur-1
suant to paragraph (1)— 2
(A) a detailed explanation describing the 3
conduct forming the basis of the person’s inclu-4
sion on the list; and 5
(B)(i) the expected timeline for sanctions 6
described in paragraph (1) to be imposed with 7
respect to such person; or 8
(ii) if the President does not intend to 9
impose sanctions with respect to such per-10
son, a detailed justification describing the 11
rationale and legal authorities underlying 12
such negative determination. 13
SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS. 14
(a) ANC.—The term ‘‘ANC’’ means the African Na-15
tional Congress. 16
(b) A
PPROPRIATECONGRESSIONALCOMMITTEES.— 17
The term ‘‘appropriate congressional committees’’ 18
means— 19
(1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 20
House of Representatives; and 21
(2) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 22
Senate. 23
(c) CCP.—The term ‘‘CCP’’ means the Chinese Com-24
munist Party. 25
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(d) PRC.—The term ‘‘PRC’’ means the People’s Re-1
public of China. 2
Æ
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