By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former South African ambassador to the United States of America (USA) Ebrahim Rasool has discussed his expulsion with International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola.
Ebrahim landed at the Cape Town International Airport over the weekend after being expelled by the US.
“Following the meeting, a formal report will be submitted to the President for his consideration. Pending this, the Ministry or Department will not engage in public engagements on the matter,” a statement issued by the Ministry on Monday said.
Mounting pressure is on president Cyril Ramaphosa to replace Rasool with someone who will be palatable to US President Donald Trump’s administration and mend the fractured relations between the US and South Africa.
Ramaphosa, although he indicated that this decision would not be made hastily.
The tension between the two countries escalated when Trump cut financial aid due to South Africa’s Expropriation Act and other foreign policy clashes, including South Africa’s decision to haul Israel before the International Court of Justice, accusing the country of committing war crimes against Palestinians.
Rasool’s comments at a recent Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection webinar seemingly added fuel to the fire and were used as a justification to expel him, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio commenting on social media that Rasool “was no longer welcome in our great country”.
But he maintained that his remarks were not directed at Trump.
“I want to say that 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…
“Foremost amongst that is truth. We can modulate our truth. We can have a megaphone that is loud, or we can have a megaphone that is soft, but we will never stop speaking the truth. So, we are not here to throw away our interests with the US,” he said.
Days before Rasool’s expulsion Ramaphosa’s office confirmed he intended to send a send a delegation to Washington to propose a trade pact as a way of resetting the bilateral relationship.
The mission, his spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said, would not be an endeavour to explain South African policies, although envoys would be happy to engage on issues that require clarification.
He has qualified Rasool’s expulsion as “regrettable” and said Pretoria would take lessons from what had transpired.
Fullview learnt that Andries Nel, deputy cooperative governance minister, is on the candidates list to replace Rasool, but the government dismissed this as a whispering campaign.