The United States has expelled South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio labelling him a “race-baiting politician” and accusing him of being hostile towards both the US and former President Donald Trump.
The move marks a significant escalation in diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
In a post on X, Rubio declared Rasool “no longer welcome in our great country,” citing comments the ambassador made during an online lecture in which he criticised the Trump administration. During the event, Rasool accused Trump of “mobilising a supremacism” and using “white victimhood as a dog whistle” to rally support among white Americans, whose share of the electorate is projected to drop below 50%. He also suggested South Africa was being targeted because it stood as an “antidote to supremacism.”
The South African presidency called the expulsion “regrettable” and reaffirmed its commitment to fostering a “mutually beneficial” relationship with Washington. However, tensions between the two nations have been worsening since Trump returned to office.
The expulsion follows Trump’s executive order last month, which froze US assistance to South Africa, citing what Washington described as “unjust racial discrimination” against white Afrikaners. The order specifically referenced South Africa’s new Expropriation Act, which permits land expropriation without compensation in certain cases.
The White House claimed the law disproportionately targeted Afrikaner farmers, who, despite making up a small minority of the population, still own a vast majority of privately held farmland. A 2018 South African land audit found that white farmers owned 72% of the country’s individually held farmland, even though the 2022 census reported that white South Africans accounted for just 7.2% of the population.
“As long as South Africa continues to support bad actors on the world stage and allows violent attacks on innocent disfavoured minority farmers, the United States will stop aid and assistance to the country,” a White House statement read.
South Africa’s government rejected the US accusations, calling them part of “a campaign of misinformation and propaganda aimed at misrepresenting our great nation.” Officials insisted that land expropriation without compensation had not yet occurred and would only be used in “exceptional circumstances,” such as cases of land needed for public use where all other avenues had been exhausted.
A fact sheet from the White House, however, accused South Africa of “blatantly discriminating against ethnic minority descendants of settler groups.”
Rasool, who previously served as South Africa’s ambassador to the US from 2010 to 2015, has a personal history shaped by apartheid-era policies. As a child, he and his family were forcibly removed from their home in Cape Town’s District Six when the area was declared whites-only under apartheid laws. He has since described the eviction as a defining moment that shaped his political career.
In 2024, Rasool was reappointed as Pretoria’s envoy to Washington, with sources telling South African news site Daily Maverick that his prior experience in US diplomacy made him well-placed to handle Trump’s administration.
His expulsion is highly unusual, as senior diplomats are rarely declared persona non grata in Washington.
While the South African government has expressed disappointment, it remains unclear whether the diplomatic row will lead to further fallout between the two nations.
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