SA should try to rebuild relationship with the US – Rasool

Former ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool says SA must fight for its relationship with the US but must also keep its dignity.

Rasool arrived back home in Cape Town on Sunday morning with his wife Rosieda and was welcomed by a large number of ANC supporters after his expulsion as ambassador.

“It was not our choice to come home but we come home with no regrets. I want to say that we would have loved to come back with a welcome like this if we could report to you that we have turned away the lies of a white genocide in SA but we did not succeed in America with that,” he told the crowd.

“We would have preferred to come here to say that we have won for you Agoa [African Growth and Opportunity Act] but we could not win it by withdrawing our case from the International Court of Justice [ICJ] against Israel because as we stand here the bombing has continued and the shooting has continued and if SA was not in the ICJ, Israel would not be exposed and the Palestinians would have no hope.

“We would have preferred to come here and say we have won for you trade deals but we would not do so by allowing the US to choose who must be our friends and who must be our enemies.

On March 14, US secretary of state Marco Rubio posted on X that Rasool was “no longer welcome” in the US.

He said: “Ebrahim Rasool is a race-bating politician who hates America and hates @POTUS. We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA.”

According to Sowetan's sister publication TimesLIVE, this was after Rasool's comments at a foreign policy seminar where he reportedly told attendees that US President Donald Trump was leading a white supremacist movement in America and the world.

On Sunday, Rasool said he stood by his “analysis”.

“We were analysing a political phenomenon, not a personality, not a nation and not even a government, so I stand by that,” he said.

He said SA should reset and rebuild its relationship with the US.

Rasool also said SA tried conventional diplomacy and tried to avoid discussions about genocide.

“We had to go to what is the diplomacy of ubuntu ... [which] is not the art of lying for your country. It is the art of speaking the truth but gently.”

He also added: “South Africa is not a military superpower, South Africa is not an economic superpower, but South Africa has the ability again, to become a moral superpower, to stand up against chauvinism, to stand up against populism and to say what our people died for on 21 March that is what we stand for.”

SowetanLIVE