‘Persona non grata’ – US expels SA ambassador Ebrahim Rasool from Washington

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared on Friday, 14 March, that South Africa’s ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool was “no longer welcome” in the US, accusing him of being a “race-bating politician who hates America”. 

Rasool was expelled barely two months after he arrived in Washington. It was the latest incident in the deterioration of diplomatic ties between Pretoria and Washington after US President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. 

It comes days after President Cyril Ramaphosa, responding to questions from MPs in the National Assembly, said Rasool was “on the ground” in Washington, engaging with stakeholders to “underscore the importance” of deepening economic, cultural and political relations between the US and SA.

Read more: Ebrahim Rasool to return to Washington as ambassador at critical moment in SA-US relations

Rubio posted on X on Friday night: “South Africa’s ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country. Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates [the President of the United States].



“We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA,” he wrote. 

In his X post, Rubio linked to a report from the right-wing news site Breitbart News, about a lecture Rasool gave in an online webinar hosted by the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (Mistra) on the Trump administration’s foreign policy and the implications of changes in the administration for South Africa and Africa. 

 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1ILz1S_AdQ[/embed]

The report was written by Breitbart News’ “senior editor at large” Joel Pollak  who was born in South Africa but lives in the US. He is a zealous Trump supporter and critic of SA and has been tipped by some to be Trump’s pick to be US ambassador to SA.

Pollak’s article said Rasool had told the webinar that Trump “is leading a white supremacist movement in America and around the world”. Pollak added that Rasool had said that “white supremacism” was motivating Trump’s “disrespect” for the “current hegemonic order” of the world, including institutions like the United Nations and the G20.  

“He also said that the Make America Great Again movement was a white supremacist response to growing demographic diversity in the United States, and suggested that South African farmers who had presented Afrikaner grievances within the US were part of that global effort,” Pollak wrote.

The Mistra webinar

At the Mistra webinar, Rasool did say that Trump was showing “a disrespect for the institutional base of the current hegemonic order. We see that in the way in which the Russian negotiations are being conducted that has very little or has a healthy disrespect for NATO”. He also said Trump was bypassing institutions like the United Nations, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. 

Rasool did not use the phrase “white supremacist” but did use the word “supremacist” a few times and arguably implied that he meant white supremacist.

“I think what Donald Trump is launching is an assault on incumbency – those who are in power – by mobilising a supremacism against the incumbency, at home, and, I think I’ve illustrated, abroad as well,” Rasool said.

“So in terms of that – the supremacist assault on incumbency, we see it in the domestic politics of the USA, the MAGA movement – the Make America Great Again movement – as a response not simply to a supremacist instinct, but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate in the USA is projected to become 48% white, and that the possibility of a majority of minorities is looming on the horizon,” said Rasool.

“And so that needs to be factored in, so that we understand some of the things that we think are instinctive, nativist, racist things, I think that there’s data that, for example, would support… this wall being built, the deportation movement etc.”

Rasool also cited the missions to the Trump administration by Afriforum and Solidarity to complain that the passing of the Expropriation Act was intended to seize the land of Afrikaners.

Read more: Flat spin — Solidarity’s Washington lobbying trip is big on hype, scant on details

He said the aim of these organisations was “very clearly… to project white victimhood as a dog whistle that there is a global protective movement that is beginning to envelop embattled white communities or, apparently, embattled white communities. It may not be true, it may not make sense, but that is not the dog whistle that is being heard in a global white base…. they are pitting a supremacist insurgency against the incumbency.”

Rasool noted that the attacks on SA because of its foreign policy positions had begun under President Joe Biden. But he said there were “significant discontinuities” from the Trump administration, including “a disrespect for the institutional base of the current hegemonic order”.

“I think it’s also in our interest to watch whether that disrespect will persist and be sustained on the issue of the G20 – especially because we need to hand over from South Africa to the US, the presidency of the US.”

He suggested that SA was under attack because “we are the historical antidote to supremacism”, citing SA’s transition to democracy and “the success story” of the Government of National Unity. 

Rubio snubbed G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in SA

Last month, Rubio cocked a snook at South Africa’s G20 presidency when he announced that he would skip a meeting of the G20 foreign ministers in Johannesburg, after accusing this country of “doing very bad things”. He dismissed SA’s G20 themes as diversity, equity and inclusion and climate change, both of which the Trump administration has set its face against. 

Ironically, the gist of Rasool’s speech was devoted to advising that South Africa would have to exercise great caution and diplomacy in dealing with Trump.  

His advice included “stay calm and don’t panic” and suggested that SA should hold back on sending envoys to see if  Americans themselves succeeded in pushing back against Trump. 

That could do “half the work that we think some of our envoys can be doing”, he said, referring to the special envoy that President Ramaphosa had announced would be going to the US but has not been deployed. 

He advised that SA should hold back its “impact” players until all the posts dealing with SA and Africa in the Trump administration had been filled to avoid “knocking on empty doors”.

Rasool said the Afrikaner issue had a plus side because it had consolidated SA’s African base and had helped to rally support from Europe. 

He also advised, “Don’t come here empty handed, come ready to deal… be transactional.”

He said SA should not repeat Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s mistake of coming to the White House and arguing policy with Trump and Vice President JD Vance. 

Rasool also stressed the great importance of the US to SA, noting that while exports to China were 80% commodities, exports to US were 70% manufactured goods, which created "an enormous number of jobs".

He also suggested that Trump’s “healthy disrespect for global institutions” might help SA’s ambition to reform those institutions.

“And so let us hope that in the idea of a broken clock being right twice a day, that we are able to manage how we do that.”

Rasool was criticised on the webinar for not doing enough to fight SA’s cause and for lacking access to the power brokers in Washington. But he insisted that he had been extremely busy behind the scenes and had many meetings with Congress, officials and think tanks.

“When you get access, you shut up because … you don’t conduct the kind of faith of 60 million people on television, on video, on social media. That would be absolutely irresponsible and then you have a reason to recall me because I’m playing silly buggers with the fortunes of our nation.” 

‘Regrettable expulsion’

In response to Rubio’s X post, Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said the department had “noted” Rubio’s post. 

“We will engage through the diplomatic channel,” wrote Phiri. 

In a statement from the South African presidency on Saturday morning, spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said the presidency had also “noted the regrettable expulsion” of SA’s ambassador to the US. 

Read more: Time to mute ‘megaphone’ on Gaza — Ebrahim Rasool, SA’s new US ambassador

“The presidency urges all relevant and impacted stakeholders to maintain the established diplomatic decorum in their engagement with the matter.

“South Africa remains committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with the United States of America,” said Magwenya. 

Meanwhile in the US, Republican Senator Jim Risch, the powerful chair of the Senate foreign relations committee and a frequent critic of SA, posted on X: “I applaud [Marco Rubio] for calling out the South African ambassador’s disgraceful, anti-American hate speech. Suffice it to say he is not cut out for diplomacy.” 

In an interview with Daily Maverick, before taking up his position in December 2024, Rasool said he believed Pretoria and Trump were “in alignment” on Russia’s war against Ukraine. He also suggested SA should put away its “megaphone” on Gaza. DM