'No US posting for Rasool till he's cleared'

Ebrahim Rasool should not be allowed to take up his post as ambassador to the US until allegations that he made secret payments to journalists were investigated and he was cleared, the DA said.

"An ambassador is supposed to represent a country and should be beyond reproach," said the party's foreign affairs spokesman, Kenneth Mubu.

"It is not possible for Rasool to fulfil this requirement with such a substantial allegation hanging over his head."

A former political reporter for the Cape Argus, Ashley Smith, said this week that he and another employee had been paid to write articles promoting Rasool, who was then Western Cape premier.

Smith said Rasool had used him and his colleague as his "front line of attack" against rivals in the ANC, particularly the party's provincial secretary, Mcebisi Skwatsha.

Rasool, who became a member of the National Assembly after he was axed from the premiership by the ANC in 2008, is South Africa's ambassador-designate to Washington.

Mubu said the Department of International Relations was now "duty bound" to withhold his posting.

"Ideally, Rasool should put South Africa first and withdraw from his appointment."

There was also a case to be made that Rasool's conduct as premier suggested that he was not fit to represent South Africa abroad, said Mubu.

A high court had found that Rasool established the Erasmus Commission to pursue a political agenda, Mubu said.