Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) chair Ebrahim Rasool has resigned as he prepares to move to the US as South Africa's ambassador.
“Rasool will no longer serve as chair of the nomination committee, member of the infrastructure delivery and knowledge management committee, member of the human resources and remuneration committee and the board credit and investment committee effective from November 30,” the DBSA said in a notice to shareholders on Wednesday.
“The board remains properly constituted in terms of the Development Bank of Southern Africa Act and can continue to perform and exercise its fiduciary obligations effectively.”
Rasool’s return as ambassador to the US coincides with the re-election of Donald Trump as president, who previously pushed for restrictive trade policies and a clampdown on immigration.
Rasool, who previously held the position from 2010 to 2015 when Barack Obama was in the Oval Office, will be responsible for articulating South Africa's foreign policy position to retain favourable diplomatic and trade relations with the US.
Trump’s return to the White House could mark a setback for efforts to combat climate change and for globalism, in the US and worldwide. In 2017, a year after assuming office, he pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Trump's election victory has raised fears from market watchers that South Africa could be excluded from preferential trade under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). The act provides preferential access for about 20% of the country’s exports to the US, or 2% of its shipments globally.
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