President Cyril Ramaphosa says the US declaring SA ambassador Ebrahim Rasool a person non grata was regrettable. This comes after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Rasool was no longer welcome in America.

A PERSON NON GRATA

In a post on X yesterday, Rubio wrote: "South Africa's Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country. Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America. He went on to say Rasool hates American President Donald Trump. "We have nothing to discuss with him, and so he is considered a person non grata." This comes after Rasool, who was addressing the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection in Johannesburg yesterday, said that Trump is leading a white supremacist movement in America and around the world. During the address, Rasool said, "What Donald Trump is launching is an assault on incumbency, those who are in power, by mobilising a supremacism against the incumbency at home, and I think I've illustrated abroad as well,' He also accused the Make America Great Again movement of being a response not to a supremacist instinct but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate in the USA is projected to become 48% white."

REGRETTABLE

The presidency said they have noted Rasool's expulsion. "The Presidency has noted the regrettable expulsion of South Africa's Ambassador to the United States of America, Mr. Ebrahim Rasool. The presidency urges all relevant and impacted stakeholders to maintain the established diplomatic decorum in their engagement with the matter. South Africa remains committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with the United States of America," the Presidency said in a statement.