South Africa will not launch a retaliatory strike against the US after it expelled ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, with top government figures saying the expulsion was justified because Rasool had “scored an own goal”.
Insiders said the government took a decision not to defend Rasool as some of his recent comments were “problematic” and “he crossed a line that we can’t defend”.
Rasool has until March 21 to leave the US, with his replacement expected to be announced soon. The Sunday Times has established that the government has already picked three names to recommend to President Cyril Ramaphosa as his replacement.
High-ranking government officials told the Sunday Times that no ambassador can get away with attacking a sitting president of their host country in the way Rasool had.
“You can’t criticise your host country in the manner that he did, using the type of language he did. [Rasool] knows this because it is part of the training diplomats get,” said the official.
The official said South Africa would have done the same had a US ambassador to South Africa behaved in the same manner.
South Africa had yesterday woken to the news that US secretary of state Marco Rubio announced that Rasool was “persona non-grata” and not welcome in the US.
This after Rasool reportedly told a foreign policy seminar that US President Donald Trump was leading a white supremacist movement in America and the world.
“The supremacist assault on incumbency, we see it in the domestic politics of the US, 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 US in which the voting electorate in the US is projected to become 48% white,” he said.
Rasool's expulsion is yet another blow to relations between South Africa and the Trump administration though South African officials have been quick to characterise the Rasool debacle as a separate incident of his own making and not another skirmish in the escalating battle between the administrations.
“On this one you can’t fault the US,” said a government official who wished to remain anonymous. “This latest action should not be viewed in the context of tensions between Pretoria and Washington. It’s an isolated incident of somebody who crossed a line that diplomats know they shouldn’t cross.”
On the expulsion of ambassador Rasool, while regrettable, there are lessons to be drawn from the experience and we will reflect on those lesson
— Vincent Magwenya, presidential spokesperson
Ramaphosa appears to be unfazed by the expulsion of Rasool and appears keen to save the relationship with the US.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya on Saturday said there was no appetite to retaliate against Rasool’s expulsion, which he confirmed was final. He said Rasool had a few days in which to pack up and leave Washington DC.
“On the expulsion of Ambassador Rasool, while regrettable, there are lessons to be drawn from the experience and we will reflect on those lesson,” said Magwenya.
“The President has always preferred to be constructive in our engagement with the US. When some people were calling on the President to expel Ambassador Bridgety, the President chose to engage constructively with the Biden administration. And out of that approach we remained strategically engaged with the US and issues of misunderstanding were ironed out at the time.”
Dirco spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said Rasool's expulsion was regrettable as the veteran had was making progress in resolving the diplomatic fallout between the US and SA.
"Ambassador Rasool was on the verge of an engagement with strategic official in the White House. This regrettable development has scuttled the significant progress," he said.
Ramaphosa’s second term as president has been marred by a litany of “firsts”, including being forced into a government of national unity with 10 opposition parties and recently the finance minister being unable to deliver the budget speech after it was rejected by cabinet ministers 15 minutes before he was meant to take the podium.
And now the growing tensions with the US have led to another unwelcome first, with Rasool's expulsion just three months into the job.
One diplomatic source said Rasool “played into their [the Americans'] hands” by “crossing a line that we can’t defend” as they had been watching him like a hawk because of his pro-Palestine views.
Rasool took up the diplomatic post in January, after previously serving in the role between 2010 and 2015.
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