The Trump Administration expels South Africa’s ambassador to the United States

IN AN unprecedented and extraordinary move last week, the Trump Administration swiftly expelled Ebrahim Rasool and declared him Persona Non-Grata. The US government told Rasool to leave US soil within a week. This marks the latest development in the rapidly deteriorating bilateral relations between the United States of America and South Africa.

Rasool, the former Premier of the Western Cape, is supposed to be a seasoned diplomat. He just served as South Africa’s ambassador to the United States for the second time. He first served as South Africa’s ambassador to the US from 2010 until 2015 when the friendly Barack Obama was the US president. Then his second and short-lived stint in 2025 coincided with the more hostile Trump taking reigns on January 20, 2025, to start his delayed second term as President.

For this reason, one would have expected Rasool to possess the foresight and maturity to handle the job of mending the fraught relations between South Africa and the US. Like an amateurish statesman, Rasool played into the hands of Trump and Marco Rubio, the new US Secretary of State. It is often said that foreign policy is the extension and reflection of domestic policy.

However, make no mistake that this is just about the US’s harsh handling of Rasool as an individual. This is about the US sending a strong message to the ANC that it will no longer tolerate its perceived hostility towards the US government and its strong ally, Israel. We are likely to see the Trump Administration impose sanctions on some ANC leaders.

The expulsion comes after Rasool addressed a MISTRA webinar that discussed South Africa’s diplomatic challenges in the era of Trump. In his presentation, Rasool boldly and blatantly accused the US President, Donald Trump, of leading a “white supremacist” Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

Rasool further insinuated that the MAGA movement seeks to chase away non-white illegal immigrants while welcoming Afrikaners to prevent minorities from becoming a majority in the US. To rub salt into the wound, Rasool also brought up the issue of the US arming Israel in his webinar presentation.

The US government is still bitter about South Africa’s decision to take the Jewish state of Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Israel is one of the closest allies of the US. The two largest political parties in the US, Democrats and Republicans, even compete over which political party is more pro-Israel. As if to remind the world about the US’s solidarity with Israel, the first foreign leader to visit the US after Trump’s inauguration on January 20 was none other than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel who is on the wanted list of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the US has become increasingly hostile towards Muslims. The fact that Rasool is a Muslim did not sit well with the Trump Administration and this made him an unwelcome guest in the US. In this context, the deployment of Rasool as South Africa’s ambassador to the US has proven to be a strategic foreign policy blunder.

It should be noted that as South Africa’s chief representative and top diplomat in the US, Rasool’s main job is to strengthen – not weaken - bilateral relations between the US and South Africa. His utterances proved not so diplomatic coming from South Africa’s top diplomat who has occupied the key strategic role for a long time in Washington DC.

Diplomatic language requires diplomats to communicate in a manner that is tactful, strategic, respectful, and always refraining from offending others. One wonders what Rasool was thinking when he tore into Trump. As a foreign diplomat, Rasool is just a guest in the US.

From the time countries established diplomatic relations, their main aim then was to build and nurture bilateral and multilateral relations as well as foster understanding between and among nation-states. Diplomats are tasked with building relationships with government and business leaders from receiving countries as well as resolving conflicts.

The US, according to Rubio, expelled Rasool for being a “race-baiting politician who hates America.” Rubio posted on X saying that Rasool is “no longer wanted in our great country” because “he hates America and @ POTUS {President of the United States}. Rubio concluded by saying that “we have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered Persona Non-Grata.”

It is not uncommon for receiving or host countries to expel diplomats from the sending states. Just this week, Rwanda and Belgium expelled each other’s diplomats over the conflict that is raging between the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels in the eastern part of the DRC.

Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations states categorically that (1) The receiving state may at any time and without having to explain its decision, notify the sending State that the head of the mission or any member of the diplomatic staff of the mission is persona non-grata or that any member of the staff of the mission is not acceptable. In any such case, the sending State shall, as appropriate, either recall the person concerned or terminate his functions with the mission

In 2023, the US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, claimed that a Russian ship, the Lady R, was loaded with ammunition and arms in Cape Town destined for Russia. The US ambassador accused South Africa of supplying Russia with weapons in violation of its non-aligned stance in the war between Russia and Ukraine. This sparked a diplomatic war of words between the two countries as South Africa accused Brigety of lying and failing to produce evidence.

South Africa could have expelled the US ambassador but opted not to do so for, I guess, fear of alienating the less hostile Biden Administration. The United States is the largest economy in the world and also happens to be South Africa’s second-largest trading partner.

South African exports enjoy special access to the gigantic US market through the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA). Since returning to the White House in late January, Trump has imposed punitive tariffs on Canada and Mexico which are its neighbours and partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The US has also imposed tariffs on China which it accuses of unfair trading practices. Trump is also contemplating imposing tariffs on allies such as the European Union (EU) which is one of the US’s main trading partners.

While Canada, China, and the EU could afford to retaliate and have done so, South Africa does not have that luxury. Just imagine what will likely happen to South African businesses that export goods to the US market if the Trump Administration were to impose tariffs on South African goods. Millions of jobs will be lost as businesses enjoying access to the US market will become less profitable and ultimately force them to retrench workers.

US corporations have also invested billions of dollars in the form of foreign direct investment (FDI) and portfolio investments on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). In this context, the South African economy stands to suffer more if the bilateral relations between the two countries are not mended.

What this means is that It is not in South Africa’s national interest to have antagonistic relations with the US. Already, the Trump Administration has withdrawn support and aid to South Africa over the passing of the Expropriation Act. The result is that people are losing jobs in a country where unemployment remains stubbornly high and more than 25 million people survive and depend on social grants. Trump, Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, and leaders from the developed world can walk with their heads held high because the majority of their citizens are not beggars

The lesson for South Africa here is that its leaders need to remember we are still very dependent on the US and other Western countries. In a country and continent in which little economic progress has been achieved, it is ill-advised for leaders to act arrogantly as if they can do without Western support.

Zakhele Collision Ndovu is a political analyst at theUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media. 

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