The US is expelling South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing him as a “race-baiting politician”.
In a post on X, Rubio accused Ebrahim Rasool of hating the US and President Donald Trump, and said the ambassador was “no longer welcome in our great country”.
The office for South Africa’s president on Saturday called the decision “regrettable”, adding that the country remained committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with the US.
The rare move by the US marks the latest development in rising tensions between the two countries.
While lower-ranking diplomats are sometimes expelled, it’s highly unusual in the US for it to happen to a more senior official.
In his post on Friday, Rubio linked to an article from the right-wing outlet Breitbart that quoted some of Rasool’s recent remarks made during an online lecture about the Trump administration.
At the event, Rasool said Trump was “mobilising a supremacism” and trying to “project white victimhood as a dog whistle” as the white population faced becoming a minority in the US.
“We see it in the domestic politics of the USA, the Maga movement as a response not simply to a supremacist instinct, but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate in the USA is projected to become 48% white,” he said.
He suggested that South Africa was under attack because “we are the historical antidote to supremacism”.
In response, Rubio called Rasool “PERSONA NON GRATA”, referencing the Latin phrase for “unwelcome person”.
Ties between the US and South Africa have been deteriorating since Trump took office.
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