{"id":96927,"date":"2026-04-08T15:13:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/bozell-clarifies-intent-after-court-comment-controversy"},"modified":"2026-04-08T15:29:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:29:30","slug":"bozell-clarifies-intent-after-court-comment-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/bozell-clarifies-intent-after-court-comment-controversy","title":{"rendered":"Bozell Clarifies Intent After Court Comment Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>U.S. Ambassador Brent Bozell said he did not intend to undermine the South African judiciary when he criticised a court ruling on the \u201cKill the Boer\u201d chant.<\/p>\n<p>Less than a month into his tenure as America\u2019s ambassador to South Africa, Bozell was reprimanded by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation for disparaging the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n<p>He previously said the chant amounts to hate speech and that the court ruling upholding the chant was \u201cobjectively wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Bozell, along with 19 other heads of mission, presented his letter of credence to President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Presidential Guesthouse in Pretoria on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The letter formally recognises ambassadors to South Africa and serves to establish official diplomatic relations between their respective countries.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to journalists after presenting his credentials to President Cyril Ramaphosa, Bozell emphasised that his comments were not made with malice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have the greatest respect for the judiciary. I say judges can be wrong, American judges are wrong all the time. That doesn\u2019t mean I have no respect for the judiciary. I have complete respect for the American judicial system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bozell also said he was optimistic about strengthening the fragile diplomatic relationship between Pretoria and Washington.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are two nations with great shared values and interests. It\u2019s my goal during my time here to build on those shared interests and mutual respect, as well as to take our two nations to places they\u2019ve never been before. I believe in the art of the possible, and I believe it will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. U.S. Ambassador Brent Bozell said he did not intend to undermine the South African judiciary when he criticised a court ruling on the \u201cKill the Boer\u201d chant. Less than a month into his tenure as America\u2019s ambassador to South Africa, Bozell was reprimanded by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":96926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-96927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bozell Clarifies Intent After Court Comment Controversy - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"U.S. Ambassador Brent Bozell said he did not intend to undermine the South African judiciary when he criticised a court ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/bozell-clarifies-intent-after-court-comment-controversy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bozell Clarifies Intent After Court Comment Controversy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"U.S. Ambassador Brent Bozell said he did not intend to undermine the South African judiciary when he criticised a court ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/bozell-clarifies-intent-after-court-comment-controversy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-08T15:13:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-08T15:29:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/04\/sm_1775649499.912782.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/bozell-clarifies-intent-after-court-comment-controversy#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/bozell-clarifies-intent-after-court-comment-controversy\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Bozell Clarifies Intent After Court Comment Controversy\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-08T15:13:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-08T15:29:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/bozell-clarifies-intent-after-court-comment-controversy\"},\"wordCount\":274,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/bozell-clarifies-intent-after-court-comment-controversy#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/04\/sm_1775649499.912782.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/bozell-clarifies-intent-after-court-comment-controversy#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/bozell-clarifies-intent-after-court-comment-controversy\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/bozell-clarifies-intent-after-court-comment-controversy\",\"name\":\"Bozell Clarifies Intent After Court Comment Controversy - 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