The US ambassador to South Africa's diplomatic rebuke follows his remarks that he 'didn't care' about South African court rulings on the Struggle song 'Kill the Boer', and that the phrase constitutes hate speech.

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) on Wednesday, 11 March, démarched the new US ambassador to South Africa, Leo Brent Bozell III, less than a month after he arrived in the country.

At a press conference on Wednesday evening, Dirco Minister Ronald Lamola and director-general Zane Dangor confirmed Bozell had been démarched, after News24 reported that he had been summoned to the Dirco offices in Pretoria that afternoon.

The publication reported that the démarche came after Bozell said he "didn't care" about South African court rulings on the Struggle song "Kill the Boer", adding that it constitutes hate speech.

He was quoted as saying: "We may not get clarity on the Kill the Boer chant that we believe is hate speech. I am sorry, I don't care what your courts say, it's hate speech."

Bozell made the remarks at a BizNews conference in Hermanus on Tuesday.

In March 2025, the Constitutional Court upheld a ruling that the phrase "Kill the Boer, kill the farmer", a liberation-era chant, does not constitute hate speech under South African law. The ruling followed an appeal by AfriForum against a previous judgment.

A démarche is essentially a diplomatic dressing down --...