A senior official from the African National Congress (ANC), the largest political party in South Africa, said on Wednesday they are not intimidated by the prospect of the United States imposing sanctions on their party leaders.

“The US wants to coerce us to do things that are anti-transformation… It’s not possible. If they want to bring sanctions on us, let them bring them,” Fikile Mbalula, secretary-general of the ANC, told a media briefing in Johannesburg.

Last month, US lawmakers voted to push forward the US-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act of 2025, a bill that would see some senior ANC officials hit with sanctions if passed into law.

The US is unhappy with some of South Africa’s foreign policies, particularly Pretoria’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (IC) in The Hague, accusing it of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The US is a key ally of Israel and supplier of arms.

US foreign aid

“If it means we are going to suffer through sanctions as leaders of the ANC, let it be. We will never subvert our democracy, subvert our sovereignty,” he said.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order freezing US financial aid to South Africa, citing a passed land appropriation law that Pretoria says is aimed at tackling disparity caused by apartheid.