United States HR 2633: U.S.-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act of 2025

Bill Text

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119TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION 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
APRIL 3, 2025
Mr. JACKSON of 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