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The administration of President Donald Trump has declared South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool a persona non grata in the United States.
In a social media post on Friday, US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio said that Rasool was “no longer welcome in our great country.”
This is according to a report by AlJazeera.
“Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates POTUS,” Rubio wrote, using the acronym for President of the United States. “We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA.”
Rubio linked his remarks to an article by the right-wing media outlet Breitbart, wherein Rasool was quoted as saying Trump mobilised a “supremacist instinct” and “white victimhood” as a “dog whistle” during the 2024 elections.
On Saturday morning, South Africa’s presidency issued a statement stating that the decision was “regrettable”.
“The Presidency urges all relevant and impacted stakeholders to maintain the established diplomatic decorum in their engagement with the matter,” the presidency said, adding that it “remains committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with the United States of America.”
Chrispin Phiri, spokesperson for South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, posted on X that the government “will engage through the diplomatic channel”.
Rasool’s expulsion is the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration castigating South Africa, a country that has supported Palestinian rights and helped spearhead a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel, a US ally, of genocidal acts in Gaza.
Earlier this week, the news outlet Semafor reported that Rasool, a veteran diplomat, has been denied what are typically routine opportunities to speak with officials at the US State Department, as well as with high-level Republicans, since Trump’s inauguration.
Rasool returned to his post as South Africa’s ambassador to the US in January. He previously served in the role from 2010 to 2015, during the presidency of Barack Obama.
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