US State Secretary Marco Rubio has accused South Africa’s ambassador of hating the US and President Trump.
Published On 15 Mar 2025
South Africa has said the decision of the United States to expel Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool is “regrettable”, but the country “remains committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship” with Washington.
South Africa’s presidency urged “all relevant and impacted stakeholders to maintain the established diplomatic decorum in their engagement with the matter” in a statement issued on Saturday morning, just hours after US State Secretary Marco Rubio called Rasool a “race-baiting politician” who hates the US and President Donald Trump.
Rubio wrote on X that Rasool was “no longer welcome in our great country”, adding: “We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA.”
Rubio linked his remarks to an article by the right-wing media outlet Breitbart, wherein Rasool is quoted as saying Trump mobilised a “supremacist instinct” and “white victimhood” as a “dog whistle” during the 2024 elections.
But South African political analyst Sandile Swana told Al Jazeera that the “core of the dispute” was Pretoria’s decision to form a genocide case at the Inte