US-SA relations strained as leaks unveil mistrust within governments, warns expert

Recent “leaks” between the US and SA governments indicate deep mistrust between the two administrations

- SIPHELELE DLUDLA

US FOREIGN policy expert Michael Walsh has warned that the recent “leaks” between the US and the South African governments were indications of deep mistrust between the two administrations.

Reuters reported on Saturday that US embassy Charge d'Affaires in South Africa, David Greene, reached out to Washington asking for clarification whether nonwhites such as "coloured" South Africans who speak Afrikaans qualify for the refugee program for South Africans under the contentious US policy.

US President Donald Trump's February executive order in February establishing the program specified that it was for "Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination," referring to an ethnic group descended mostly from Dutch settlers.

Walsh - a nonresident senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, an American think tank based in Pennsylvania - said on Sunday that the US leak suggested that there was unease with the Trump Administration's policy stance on South Africa within the US Department of State.