On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio labeled the South African ambassador to the U.S., Ebrahim Rasool, as “persona non grata,” further accusing him of being a racist provocateur.
“South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country,” Rubio said in a post on X. “We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA”.
Rasool had begun his second term in the country last Jan. 13, when Democratic President Joe Biden was still in the White House.
However, ties between the U.S. and South Africa have progressively deteriorated since Trump, once back in government, cut off U.S. financial aid to the country, citing disapproval of local land policies and a genocide lawsuit filed in the International Court of Justice against Washington DC ally, Israel. A lawsuit, that had been strongly supported by Rasool himself.
In January, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a law designed to make it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest, in some cases without compensating the owner. The local leader defended the policy, which aims to level out racial disparities in land ownership in the nation.
At the time, Musk, a Pretoria native, said white South Africans were victims of “racist property laws.”
In these months marked by the conflict in Gaza, however, Rasool has consistently defended the Palestinian cause while criticizing Israel and the Netanyahu government.
In September 2023, he also expressed his support for Hamas, posting on Facebook a photo of a scarf that he said was signed by the terrorist group’s then leader Ismail Haniyeh.
In his statement released on X, Secretary of State Rubio accused the ambassador of stoking racial tensions in the U.S., and of hating the American people and President Trump himself.
