South African Ambassador ‘No Longer Welcome’; Says U.S
The United States has declared South African Ambassador, Ebrahim Rasool, a persona non grata, effectively barring him from engaging with officials in the country.
US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio made the announcement on Friday, stating that Rasool was “no longer welcome in our great country.”
“Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates POTUS,” Rubio wrote on social media, using the acronym for President of the United States.
“We have nothing to discuss with him, and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA.”
The move follows Rasool’s remarks, cited in a Breitbart article, where he accused former President Donald Trump of mobilising a “supremacist instinct” and “white victimhood” as a political strategy during the 2024 election.
Rasool’s diplomatic isolation is the latest flashpoint in strained US-South Africa relations.
The African nation has been a vocal critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza and played a key role in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) case accusing Israel of genocide—an effort opposed by the US government.
Reports from Semafor earlier this week suggested that Rasool has faced roadblocks in Washington since Trump’s return to power, including being denied routine meetings with the US State Department and top Republican officials.
Rasool, a veteran diplomat, previously served as South Africa’s ambassador to the US from 2010 to 2015 under President Barack Obama. He returned to the post in January following the ANC’s reelection.
The ANC-led South African government has drawn sharp criticism from Trump allies, including billionaire Elon Musk, a South African native, for its foreign policy positions and historical ties to the anti-apartheid struggle.
Al Jazeera reports that Trump’s administration has accused the ANC-led government of discriminating against South Africa’s white population.
In response, Trump cut aid to South Africa and, in February—at a time when his administration had largely shut down refugee admissions for those fleeing violence and repression worldwide—offered expedited U.S. citizenship to white Afrikaners, citing “government-sponsored race-based discrimination.”
The move was a reaction to South Africa’s land redistribution policy, aimed at addressing historic inequalities dating back to apartheid.
However, the South African government insists Trump is misinformed, stating that no land has been confiscated under the law.
Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told Reuters that South Africa would not engage in “counterproductive megaphone diplomacy,” referring to Trump’s repeated social media statements about the country.
Despite Trump’s framing of Afrikaners as a vulnerable minority, South African officials argue that apartheid’s economic legacy persists, with significant disparities between Black and white citizens.
A 2017 government audit found that although Black South Africans make up 80 percent of the population, they own just 4 percent of privately held farmland.
Meanwhile, white Afrikaners—who account for only 8 percent of the population—own the vast majority of the country’s farmland.
Rasool and his family were among those forcibly removed from their Cape Town home during apartheid, when Black South Africans were relocated to underdeveloped areas with little access to resources or economic opportunities.
