What the US says expropriation without compensation is costing
Expropriation without compensation is the reason two United States government finance institutions are withholding money earmarked for South Africa, according to the country’s American ambassador.
Speaking to Talk Radio 702 in an interview published on 22 September 2026 and reported by BusinessTech, Leo Brent Bozell III said the Export-Import Bank and the International Development Finance Corporation hold billions of dollars in potential investment funds intended for South Africa, and that those funds are not being deployed while the policy stands.
He framed it as a choice rather than a punishment, saying South Africa is entitled to the law but should not then “expect American corporations to invest in your country”.
Private companies are not barred from investing and some still do, but Bozell argued they will hold back where they believe assets could be taken without fair compensation.
He named no figure, no facility and no project. That is the gap in the claim. Without an amount, South Africa cannot weigh what is actually being withheld against what the policy is intended to achieve, and neither can any reader. It sits alongside the existing exposure carried by American companies already operating here.
The fifth ask has quietly changed
Washington’s five requests to President Cyril Ramaphosa have been treated as fixed since they were put to him. One of them appears to have moved.
The fifth ask was previously that South Africa end its association with Iran and other adversaries of the United States and demonstrate genuine non-alignment. On the account published on 22 September, it has been adjusted to a requirement that South Africa not interfere with the Trump administration’s Afrikaner migration programme.
That is a change in kind, not degree. The original asked South Africa to alter its foreign policy. The revised version asks it to refrain from commenting on or obstructing a United States domestic immigration programme.
It also cuts against the government’s own recent conduct, since Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola has publicly criticised that programme in Washington in terms the ambassador called disappointing.
Southafriworld could not confirm the change against any United States statement, and it is carried here as reported rather than as established.
Where the Expropriation Act actually stands
The Act was signed into law in January 2025. It allows the state to expropriate property, which is not restricted to land, for nil compensation in defined circumstances.
It is being challenged in court. Opponents argue it conflicts with Section 25 of the Constitution, which requires just and equitable compensation. The ANC previously tried to amend the Constitution to remove that requirement and failed, and the nil provision was written into the Act instead.
The argument turns on a single word. Section 25 refers to an amount. Opponents say nil is not an amount. Supporters say it is. No court has decided.
Bozell has said Washington will not negotiate on this ask until the judiciary rules, expecting the Act to be found unconstitutional. The financing, on his own account, stays withheld in the meantime. Those two positions can both be held, but they mean the money does not return simply because the matter has left the negotiating table. This is separate again from the tariff measures already made permanent.
What the BEE polling does and does not show
A claim is circulating that more than 60% of ANC voters support the American demand on black economic empowerment. The underlying surveys do not say that, and the figure appears to have been assembled from three different questions.
| Survey | When | What respondents were asked | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| SRF national survey | Late 2025 | Whether they agreed with a DA proposal to replace BEE with a policy using “poverty, not race, to determine who is in need” | 67% of all voters agreed, 25% disagreed. Among ANC supporters, 61% agreed and 28% disagreed |
| SRF Q1 2026 Market Survey | Late February to early March 2026 | The same DA proposal, named as DA policy | 63% agreed, 29% disagreed, 8% unsure. Among black voters, 55% agreed and 34% disagreed |
| SRF Q2 2026 Market Survey | 8 to 31 July 2026 | Whether American companies should be exempted from BEE if it brought investment and jobs | A majority agreed. Close to six in ten black voters agreed. About a quarter strongly disagreed |
None of those is a question about the American demand. Two are about a Democratic Alliance policy proposal. The third is conditional, attaching investment and jobs to the exemption, which is a different question from whether Washington should get what it asked for.
The methodology is disclosed. The Q2 2026 survey covered 2 214 registered voters by telephone between 8 and 31 July 2026, using random digit dialling and weighted to the registered voter population.
The surveys were commissioned by the Social Research Foundation in conjunction with The Common Sense, which has separately described the DA’s empowerment bill as “the single most significant policy shift introduced in South Africa’s Parliament in 30 years”. Daily Maverick has published criticism arguing that SRF’s own “policy preferences shine through” in how it interprets its data, and noting that figures at the foundation and at its research provider have had close associations with the DA.
Readers can weigh all of that. What cannot be supported is the sentence being circulated.
What is outstanding
Four things are unresolved, and each would change the picture.
The court has not ruled on whether nil compensation survives Section 25. Washington has not published what EXIM and the DFC are holding, or against which projects. The Presidency has not sent Ramaphosa’s reply to the five asks and has given no date. And the United States has not itself confirmed that the fifth ask has changed.
The South African government’s position is unchanged. It maintains that setting empowerment and land policy is a sovereign matter and that differences should be handled through diplomatic channels.
Bozell’s own commercial figures cut the other way. He has said South Africa remains the largest United States trade and investment partner in sub-Saharan Africa, with more than 500 American companies employing over 250 000 South Africans, and has pointed to commitments from Visa, Google, Microsoft and Amazon. Those companies are still here while the Act is on the books, which is the strongest available evidence that the withholding he describes applies to state financing rather than to private capital across the board.
That distinction has not been drawn publicly by either government, and it is the one that determines how much of this reaches a South African payslip. It follows the harder line set out when the ambassador took up his post.
HOW WE REPORTED THIS CROSS-CHECKED
- This article was built from the United States Ambassador's interview on Talk Radio 702 published on 22 September 2026, and it is treated as a separate development from his SABC interview of the same date, which Southafriworld reported separately.
- The polling section was assembled by locating and comparing three separate Social Research Foundation surveys, from late 2025, the first quarter of 2026 and the second quarter of 2026, and by recording the exact question put to respondents in each, because the three are being quoted interchangeably in public debate.
- The claim that more than 60% of ANC voters back the United States position on black economic empowerment could not be matched to any published cross-tabulation, and the article sets out what each survey actually asked rather than repeating the claim.
- Published criticism of the pollster's independence and of its interpretation of its own data was included, alongside the pollster's disclosed methodology, so readers can weigh both rather than being given only one.
- The South African government's position on expropriation and empowerment is reported on its own terms, as is the United States position, and this article does not adjudicate between them. No comment was sought from any party.
- This article was drafted with AI assistance and the facts, figures and quotations were checked against the primary source by the editor before publication.
