Pretoria – Former South African International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor says the United States has cancelled her visa without providing any reason.
Pandor, who now chairs the Nelson Mandela Foundation, told Eyewitness News that she received an email from the US Consulate this week informing her that her visa had been revoked. She had just returned from a visit to the US, where she had been using a multiple entry visitor’s visa granted to her after she retired from active politics last year.
Her engagements in the US have included a keynote address delivered in July at the United Nations in New York during the commemoration of Nelson Mandela International Day. She called on global leaders to pursue justice, referencing Mandela’s birth name Rolihlahla and its colloquial meaning in isiXhosa, which she described as troublemaker. Pandor said Mandela shook the world in defence of equality and justice, arguing that societies still needed people willing to cause what she referred to as good trouble in pursuit of fairness.
She has also been a vocal advocate of global reform. In September, while delivering a lecture at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection at the University of Johannesburg, she questioned the direction of US democracy and described the country as increasingly unstable for both its citizens and the world. Although she did not name him directly, she referenced former US President Donald Trump’s influence, saying his agenda relied on using economic and military power to punish other states while promising eventual national greatness.
Pandor’s diplomatic profile expanded when she played a central role in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. The case drew strong opposition from the Trump administration.
She told The Citizen that she has not been given any clarity regarding the visa decision. According to her, the email from the consulate cited a provision that allows US authorities to revoke a visa without providing a reason.
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