I 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7256 

To require a full review of the bilateral relationship between the United 

States and South Africa. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 6, 2024 

Mr. JAMES (for himself and Mr. MOSKOWITZ) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To require a full review of the bilateral relationship between 

the United States and South Africa. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘U.S.-South Africa Bi5 lateral Relations Review Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) The actions of the African National Con9 gress (‘‘ANC’’), which since 1994 has held a gov10 erning majority and controlled South Africa’s execuVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:35 Feb 08, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7256.IH H7256

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1 tive branch, are inconsistent with its publicly stated 

2 policy of nonalignment in international affairs. 

3 (2) In contrast to its stated stance of nonalign4 ment, the South African Government has a history 

5 of siding with malign actors, including Hamas, a 

6 U.S. designated Foreign Terrorist Organization and 

7 a proxy of the Iranian regime, and continues to pur8 sue closer ties with the People’s Republic of China 

9 (‘‘PRC’’) and the Russian Federation. 

10 (3) The South African Government’s support of 

11 Hamas dates back to 1994, when the ANC first 

12 came into power, taking a hardline stance of consist13 ently accusing Israel of practicing apartheid. 

14 (4) Following Hamas’ unprovoked and unprece15 dented horrendous attack on Israel on October 7, 

16 2023, where Hamas terrorists killed and kidnapped 

17 hundreds of Israelis, members of the South African 

18 Government and leaders of the ANC have delivered 

19 a variety of antisemitic and anti-Israel-related state20 ments and actions, including— 

21 (A) on October 7, 2023, South Africa’s 

22 Foreign Ministry released a statement express23 ing concern of ‘‘escalating violence’’, urging 

24 Israel’s restraint in response, and implicitly 

25 blaming Israel for provoking the attack through 


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1 ‘‘continued illegal occupation of Palestine land, 

2 continued settlement expansion, desecration of 

3 the Al Aqsa Mosque and Christian holy sites, 

4 and ongoing oppression of the Palestinian peo5 ple’’; 

6 (B) on October 8, 2023, the ANC’s na7 tional spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, 

8 said of the devastating Hamas attack, ‘‘the de9 cision by Palestinians to respond to the bru10 tality of the settler Israeli apartheid regime is 

11 unsurprising’’; 

12 (C) on October 14, 2023, President Cyril 

13 Ramaphosa of South Africa, accused Israel of 

14 ‘‘genocide’’ in statements during a pro-Pales15 tinian rally; 

16 (D) on October 17, 2023, South African 

17 Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor accepted a call 

18 with Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh; 

19 (E) on October 22, 2023, South African 

20 Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor visited Tehran 

21 and met with President Raisi of the Islamic Re22 public of Iran, which is actively funding Hamas; 

23 (F) on November 7, 2023, in a parliamen24 tary address Foreign Minister Pandor called for 

25 the International Criminal Court to charge 


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1 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 

2 with war crimes; 

3 (G) on November 17, 2023, South Africa, 

4 along with 4 other countries, submitted a joint 

5 request to the International Criminal Court for 

6 an investigation into war crimes being com7 mitted in the Palestinian territories; and 

8 (H) on December 29, 2023, South Africa 

9 filed a politically motivated suit in the Inter10 national Court of Justice wrongfully accusing 

11 Israel of committing genocide. 

12 (5) The South African Government has pursued 

13 increasingly close relations with the Russian Federa14 tion, which has been accused of perpetrating war 

15 crimes in Ukraine and indiscriminately undermines 

16 human rights. South Africa’s robust relationship 

17 with Russia spans the military and political space, 

18 including— 

19 (A) allowing a United States-sanctioned 

20 Russian cargo ship, the Lady R, to dock and 

21 transfer arms at a South African naval base in 

22 December 2022; 

23 (B) hosting offshore naval exercises, enti24 tled ‘‘Operation Mosi II’’, carried out jointly 

25 with the PRC and Russia, between February 17 


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1 and 27, 2023, corresponding with the 1-year 

2 anniversary of Russia’s unjustified and 

3 unprovoked invasion of Ukraine; 

4 (C) authorizing a United States-sanctioned 

5 Russian military cargo airplane to land at a 

6 South African Air Force Base; 

7 (D) reneging on its initial call for the Rus8 sian Federation to immediately withdraw its 

9 forces from Ukraine and actively seeking im10 proved relations with Moscow since February 

11 2022; and 

12 (E) dispatching multiple high-level official 

13 delegations to Russia to further political, intel14 ligence, and military cooperation. 

15 (6) South African Government interactions with 

16 the PRC Government and ANC interactions with the 

17 Chinese Communist Party (‘‘CCP’’), who are com18 mitting gross violations of human rights in the 

19 Xinjiang province and implement economically coer20 cive tactics around the globe, undermine South Afri21 ca’s democratic constitutional system of governance, 

22 as exemplified in— 

23 (A) ongoing ANC and CCP inter-party co24 operation, especially with the fundamental in25 compatibility between the civil and democratic 


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1 rights guaranteed in South Africa’s Constitu2 tion and the CCP’s routine suppression of free 

3 expression and individual rights; 

4 (B) the recruitment of former United 

5 States and NATO fighter pilots to train Chi6 nese People’s Liberation Army pilots at the 

7 Test Flying Academy of South Africa which the 

8 Department of Commerce added to the Entity 

9 List on June 12, 2023; 

10 (C) South Africa’s hosting of 6 PRC Gov11 ernment-backed and CCP-linked Confucius In12 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 Africa’s participation in a polit17 ical training school opened in Tanzania funded 

18 by the Chinese Communist Party where it 

19 trains political members of the ruling liberation 

20 movements in six Southern African countries. 

21 The school instills CCP ideology into the next22 generation of African leaders and attempts to 

23 export the CCP’s system of party-run authori24 tarian governance to the African continent; 


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1 (E) cooperation with the PRC under the 

2 PRC’s global Belt and Road Initiative which, 

3 while trade and infrastructure-focused, is de4 signed to expand PRC global economic, polit5 ical, and security sector-related influence; and 

6 (F) the widespread presence in South Afri7 ca’s media and technology sectors of PRC state 

8 linked firms that the United States has re9 stricted due to threats to national security, in10 cluding Huawei Technologies, ZTE and 

11 Hikvision, which place South African sov12 ereignty at risk and facilitate the CCP’s export 

13 of its model of digitally aided authoritarian gov14 ernance underpinned by cyber controls, social 

15 monitoring, propaganda, and surveillance. 

16 (7) The ANC-led South African Government 

17 has a history of substantially mismanaging a range 

18 of state resources and has often proven incapable of 

19 effectively delivering public services, threatening the 

20 South African people and the South African econ21 omy, as illustrated by— 

22 (A) President Cyril Ramaphosa’s February 

23 9, 2023, declaration of a national state of dis24 aster over the worsening, multi-year power cri25 sis caused by the ANC’s chronic mismanageVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:35 Feb 08, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7256.IH H7256

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1 ment of the state-owned power company 

2 Eskom, resulting from endemic, high-level cor3 ruption; 

4 (B) the persistence of South African state5 owned railway company Transnet’s insufficient 

6 capacity, which has disrupted rail operations 

7 and hindered mining companies’ export of iron 

8 ore, coal, and other commodities, in part due to 

9 malfeasance and corruption by former Transnet 

10 officials; 

11 (C) an on-going outbreak of cholera, the 

12 worst in 15 years, which is due in part to the 

13 South African Government’s disease prevention 

14 failures, as President Ramaphosa admitted on 

15 June 9, 2023, including a failure to provide 

16 clean water to households; and 

17 (D) rampant state capture, that emerged 

18 and grew during the administration of former 

19 President Jacob Zuma and has damaged South 

20 Africa’s international standing and profoundly 

21 undermined the rule of law, continues to nega22 tively impact the economic development pros23 pects and living standards of the South African 

24 people while deeply damaging public trust in 

25 state governance. 


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1 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

2 It is the sense of Congress that— 

3 (1) it is in the national security interest of the 

4 United States to deter strategic political and secu5 rity cooperation and information sharing with the 

6 PRC and the Russian Federation, particularly any 

7 form of cooperation that may aid or abet Russia’s 

8 illegal war of aggression in Ukraine or its inter9 national standing or influence; and 

10 (2) the ANC’s foreign policy actions have long 

11 ceased to reflect its stated stance of nonalignment, 

12 and now directly favor the PRC, the Russian Fed13 eration, and Hamas, a known proxy of Iran, and 

14 thereby undermine United States national security 

15 and foreign policy interests. 

16 SEC. 4. PRESIDENTIAL CERTIFICATION OF DETERMINA17 TION WITH RESPECT TO SOUTH AFRICA. 

18 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after the 

19 date of enactment of this Act, the President, in consulta20 tion with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of De21 fense, shall certify to the appropriate congressional com22 mittees and release publicly an unclassified determination 

23 explicitly stating whether South Africa has engaged in ac24 tivities that undermine United States national security or 

25 foreign policy interests. 


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1 (b) ACCOMPANYING REPORT.—The certification re2 quired by subsection (a) shall be accompanied by an un3 classified report submitted to the appropriate congres4 sional committees, with a classified annex if necessary, 

5 providing the justification for the determination. 

6 SEC. 5. FULL REVIEW OF THE BILATERAL RELATIONSHIP. 

7 (a) BILATERAL RELATIONSHIP REVIEW.—The Presi8 dent, in consultation with the Secretary of State, the Ad9 ministrator of the United States Agency for International 

10 Development, the Secretary of Defense, the United States 

11 Ambassador to South Africa, and the heads of other de12 partments and agencies that play a substantial role in 

13 United States relations with South Africa, shall conduct 

14 a comprehensive review of the bilateral relationship be15 tween the United States and South Africa. 

16 (b) REPORT ON FINDINGS.—Not later than 120 days 

17 after the date of enactment of this Act, the President shall 

18 submit to the appropriate congressional committees a re19 port that includes the findings of the review required by 

20 subsection (a). 

21 SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 

22 (a) ANC.—The term ‘‘ANC’’ means the African Na23 tional Congress. 

24 (b) PRC.—The term ‘‘PRC’’ means the People’s Re25 public of China. 


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1 (c) CCP.—The term ‘‘CCP’’ means the Chinese Com2 munist Party. 

3 (d) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES.— 

4 The term ‘‘appropriate congressional committees’’ 

5 means— 

6 (1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 

7 House of Representatives; and 

8 (2) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 

9 Senate. 

Æ 


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