Former South African international relations minister’s US visa revoked

Former South African International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor has had her US visa revoked.

Pandor, who now chairs the Nelson Mandela Foundation, told EWN and The Citizen that she received an email from the US Consulate in Cape Town shortly after returning from a trip this week.

She was informed that her that the multiple-entry visitor visa issued in 2024 was no longer valid and that she would need to reapply.

Pandor said she has “no idea” what may have prompted the decision but alleged that there has been a lobby group that has been writing to the US government urging officials to deny her entry.

Various groups have accused Pandor of aligning herself with pro-Palestinian states such as Iran and Qatar during her ministerial tenure.

A long-time advocate for Palestine, Pandor became a prominent international figure when South Africa brought its genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) while she headed the Department of International Relations and Cooperation.

Pandor has repeatedly condemned the US for its unwavering support of Israel, describing it as enabling “genocide” and “imperialism” in Gaza and the broader Middle East.

She has called for global reform of international institutions like the UN to enforce ICJ rulings against Israel, arguing that the US’s veto power and “double standards” in applying international law undermine global justice.

Her 2023 phone call with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, framed as a humanitarian discussion, drew US ire, as Hamas is designated a terrorist group by Washington.

This escalated tensions, with Pandor defending it as principled engagement, not endorsement.

Pandor said she is still weighing whether to apply for a new visa.

“I’m still thinking through whether there’s any merit in me reapplying and having an interview. I don’t know what the content of that might be,” she told EWN.

A shifting United States

Since stepping down from politics, she has travelled to the US twice in 2025, mainly to meet with Justice for All, an organisation campaigning around conditions in Gaza and drawing parallels with apartheid-era South Africa.

She also delivered the keynote address at the United Nations on International Nelson Mandela Day in July.

In her UN address, Pandor urged world leaders to “make good trouble” in pursuit of justice.

“Mandela was a troublemaker. The kind of good troublemaker that we need more of in the world today,” she said, adding that Madiba challenged systems of oppression that benefited a powerful few.

Pandor has also been a vocal critic of US political direction.

In a September lecture at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection, she argued the US could no longer be viewed as the world’s leading democracy and had become both a domestic irritant and a global threat.

She described the “tectonic shift” inside the US as part of broader geopolitical turmoil.

While avoiding direct reference to President Donald Trump, unlike former ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, she observed that Trump has “a clear purpose and vision.”

This, according to Pandor, is “to make America great again by punishing other states, using military and economic might, and somehow convincing the working-class majority that every reversal is temporary… and will eventually guarantee greatness.”