When black activists in South Africa fought against the racist racist government in their country decades ago, some on the American right felt that they took it too far. One of those people who ascended and spoke against their battle was L. Brent Bozell III, the right -wing activist that President Trump exploited this week to be the American ambassador to South Africa.
According to the Congress website, Bouzil’s candidacy was received by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday. Trump had previously chosen Bouzil to be the head of the US Agency for the World Media, but this nomination was withdrawn.
Bouzil was a prominent right -wing activist for decades. He is the founder and head of the Media Research Center, and he is a self -described “monitoring” devoted to exposing the alleged liberal bias. In the late 1990s, the Parent TV Council was founded, which opposed what he saw as inappropriate content on the ether waves. It was Ibn Bouzil, l. Brent Bouzil IV or “Zicker”, among the people who were sentenced to their role in the January 6 attack before pardoning Trump earlier this year.
While Bouzil’s profession in American issues was high -level, his past in South Africa’s policy is less famous.
yet Documents appeared by TPM He showed that Bouzil was weighing a struggle against the government of apartheid in South Africa. While this system imposes brutally the white base of minorities and legal semester of violence that included the killing and torture of activists, Bouzil was interested in the aggressive measures taken by the black opposition.
In 1987, Bouzil was head of the conservative National Political Labor Committee. On January 28 of that year, he wrote a letter to his counterpart in the Conservative Group, a right -wing policy group, declaring that his organization is “proud to become a member of the coalition against terrorism of the African National Congress Party.” The group opposed the Establishment of the African National Congress (ANC), which was the largest black national organization devoted to ending the apartheid system.
Bouzil and the White House did not respond to the requests for commenting on this story.
Specifically, the coalition organization Bouzil, which included at least 34 different groups from the right, joined the Minister of Foreign Affairs of President Ronald Reagan, George Schultz, from a planned meeting with the head of the African National Congress Party, Oliver Tambo. Despite this pressure campaign, Schultz met with Tambo on the same day on which Bouzil’s speech was sent.
The armed Anc wing, Umkhonto We Sizwe or MK, which means “Spear of the Nation”, was established in 1961 by a group that included the late legendary activist activist Nelson Mandela. Organization The bombings and attacks of the guerrilla warfareAnd some of them were fatal. Mandela, who is now widely seen as a heroic figure, was 27 years in prison for his role in MK. A modern political party has adopted MK, but they are not a continuation of the original paramilitary group.
Before meeting with Schultz, Tambo was criticized for the National Congress Party. He described it as an essential evil in light of the brutality of the apartheid regime, which committed extensive atrocities, including the killing of peaceful demonstrators.
“We have tried the violence for nearly 50 years, until 1961,” Tambo told the Washington Post at the time. “Then we decided that we had to do what others are doing – to start armed struggle.”
As part of her opposition to the meeting between Tambo and Shaultz, “the coalition against the terrorist of the African National Congress Party” I produced a post The most prominent Soviet and communist relations of the African National Congress Party. Also group Listen sessions held In the weeks before Tambo’s visit, headed by the late American Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), who was a prominent defender of the separation here in the United States. Among the speakers of the coalition sessions, John Gogotia, a black politician from South Africa, led a moderate group It was later unveiled To support the military intelligence process of the apartheid system.
While Bouzil and others on the right opposed the African National Congress, Mandela and the group eventually received intense international support that helped end the apartheid. In 1990, in response to large -scale civil turmoil and global sanctions, the ruling National Party in South Africa launched Mandela and other leaders of the African National Congress. South Africa held its first democratic elections in 1994 and became Mandela as president. He held this position for five years, but the African National Congress Party has remained the leading political party in the country.
Mandela died in December 2013. In the days after his death, Bouzil posted on the site known as Twitter to criticize Brian Williams TV broadcaster for coverage, Bouzil said, Bouzil said, “Myths” Mandela, Noting that Williams hosted what Bouzil saw The most important broadcast About the death of the British Prime Minister, conservative Margaret Thatcher earlier in the same year.
Bouzil’s nomination comes at a time when relations between the United States and South Africa achieved a low point. In December 2023, South Africa I made a case With the United Nations International Court of Justice, which accuses Israel of “genocide” in its ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. Bouzil was a voice supporter of the Israeli government.
In recent weeks, Trump and his ally, billionaire Eileon Musk, have repeatedly criticized the South African government for treating the white minority. Musk, from South Africa, inflated conspiracy theories that indicate that white farmers were killed collectively. On February 7, 2025, Trump issued an executive order that stops all foreign aid to South Africa and provides refugee status to African residents in the country, the white minority that ruled during the apartheid. Two days later, Trump moved to the social truth platform and issued a warning to South African leaders about their alleged mismanagement of “certain groups of people”.
“A huge violation of human rights occurs, so everyone can see,” Trump wrote. “The United States will not defend it – we will act.”