The DA has challenged International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola to oppose race-based policies within South Africa’s own Cabinet, following his recent public condemnation of race-based entry systems while visiting the US.

This after Lamola addressed the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in Washington, where he criticised certain US refugee and immigration frameworks, reportedly describing race-preferential entry systems as "Apartheid 2.0".

Lamola argued that allocating opportunities or entry based on race undermines peaceful coexistence and revives historical injustices.

DA spokesperson on International Relations and Cooperation Ryan Smith seized on Lamola's remarks, calling for consistency between South Africa's foreign rhetoric and its domestic policies.

"If opposing race-based policies is now a matter of principle for Minister Lamola, and not merely a matter of diplomatic convenience, he must use his position in Cabinet and Parliament to condemn the ANC’s own battery of race-based laws and policies back home," Smith stated.

The party argued that the ANC continues to classify citizens by race and allocate economic opportunities along racial lines, which the DA claims divides and impoverishes citizens rather than empowering them based on actual need and merit.

The DA reiterated its commitment to eliminating all forms of race-based policy to build a non-racial South Africa.

The disagreement unfolds against a backdrop of escalating diplomatic tension between Pretoria and Washington.

The South African government recently rejected unilateral visa restrictions introduced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The US restrictions target individuals deemed complicit in land expropriation frameworks without compensation, systemic race-based discrimination and the incitement of imminent violence against minority ethnic or racial groups.

Lamola hit back at the US policy, defending South Africa’s domestic legislation as a sovereign right and a constitutional imperative designed to heal past racial injustices rather than target minority groups.

He expressed deep concern that Washington’s actions rely on a "mischaracterisation" of South African policies, driven by fringe groups falsely claiming to represent the broader Afrikaner and other minority communities.

To counter allegations of unchecked racial hostility, Lamola highlighted the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act 16 of 2023, emphasising that South Africa maintains a stringent, legally binding framework to prosecute hate crimes across State and non-State actors.

Despite Lamola's domestic defence, the DA maintained that the Minister cannot credibly lecture the global community on non-racialism while his party upholds race-based legislation at home.

"We are delighted that Minister Lamola has now publicly adopted this principle too," Smith concluded, urging the Minister to prove his “genuine opposition” to racial categorisation by challenging the ANC's legislative framework in the Cabinet and in Parliament.