South Africa has responded following an announcement by the United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio declaring South Africa’s Ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, Persona Non Grata.
Secretary Rubio on Friday, March 15 made the announcement following Ambassador Emrahim Rasool’s remarks about US President Donald Trump.
The Secretary, in a statement on X, accused Rasool of being a “race-baiting politician” and said the US has “nothing to discuss with him”.
“South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country. Emrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates POTUS,” Rubio wrote.
“We have nothing to discuss with him, and so he is considered persona non grata.”
Rubio also shared a link to a Breitbart article covering remarks Rasool made at a foreign policy seminar earlier Friday, when he said Trump is “mobilizing a supremacism against the incumbency” at home and abroad.
Following the announcement by Rubio, the South African Presidency said the expulsion was “regrettable”.
South African Presidency responds
In a statement on Saturday, the Presidency asked all relevant and impacted stakeholders to maintain the established diplomatic decorum in their engagement with the matter.
“The Presidency has noted the regrettable expulsion of South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States of America, Ebrahim Rasool. 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,” read the statement.
The Persona Non Grata declaration against Rasool is the latest development in the plummeting relationship between the US and South Africa.
Since President Trump began his second term, the US has taken a series of punitive measures against South Africa.
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The South African government has been met with ire not only from the President, but also his ally, Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) boss and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who was born and raised in the country.
Both Trump and Musk have alleged that White farmers in the country are being discriminated against under land reform policies that South Africa’s government says are necessary to remedy the legacy of apartheid.
Back in February, the U.S. President signed an executive order cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in financial assistance to South Africa.
The order released by the White House on Friday, February 7, cited a South African law that took effect in 2024 on land expropriation.
It said the country’s new law seizes the agricultural property of ethnic minority Afrikaners, mostly white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers, without compensating them.
Trump sanctions South Africa
The executive order also cited South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel, and its move to reinvigorate relations with Iran.
Also Read: Trump Slaps South Africa with Sanctions, Cuts Aid for 3 Reasons
However, the order didn’t elaborate on South Africa’s ties to Iran except to say that they were reinvigorated to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements.
All executive departments and agencies (agencies), including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), were to the maximum extent allowed by law, directed to halt foreign aid or assistance delivered or provided to the Southern African country, and to promptly exercise all available authorities and discretion to halt such aid or assistance.
“The head of each agency may permit the provision of any such foreign aid or assistance that, in the discretion of the relevant agency head, is necessary or appropriate,” the order read in part.
The most recent U.S. government data shows that the country allocated nearly $440 million in assistance to South Africa in 2023.
Also, the order said the United States will promote the “resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation”.
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