President Donald Trump on Wednesday named a right-wing media critic as the US ambassador to South Africa, at a time that Washington's relations with one of the continent's richest countries are in free fall.
If confirmed in the role by the US Senate, Brent Bozell would be stepping into the job just after the Trump administration threw out South Africa's own envoy to the United States following perceived criticism of the president.
"I am pleased to announce that Brent Bozell will be our next United States Ambassador to South Africa," Trump posted on his social media platform.
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"Brent is the Founder of the Media Research Center, which has exposed Fake News hypocrites for many years," he added, saying Bozell "brings fearless tenacity, extraordinary experience, and vast knowledge to a Nation that desperately needs it."
The Media Research Center is a non-profit that says it works to "expose and counter the leftist bias of the national news media."
The New York Times reported that Bozell's son was one of almost 1,600 people convicted and sentenced for their role in the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol by Trump supporters, and who was pardoned by the president when he took office this year.
Ties between Washington and Pretoria have slumped since Trump cut financial aid to South Africa over what he alleges is its anti-white land policy, its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and other foreign policy clashes.
Egged on by his South Africa-born right-hand man Elon Musk, Trump has accused the country's government of discriminating against its white minority and last month signed an executive order offering refugee status to Afrikaners, the ethnic minority that once ran the country's apartheid system.
Expelled ambassador Ebrahim Rasool was given a hero's welcome on his return to South Africa, telling cheering supporters: "It was not our choice to come home, but we come home with no regrets."
South Africa, the current president of the Group of 20 leading economies, last week said it considered improving its relationship with the United States a priority.
The United States is South Africa's second-biggest trading partner.