By Kolawole Ojebisi
The fragile relations between the United States and South Africa suffered further deterioration on Friday.
This is as the United States declared Ebrahim Rasool, the South African ambassador to the country, a persona non grata.
The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, made the announcement in a tweet late Friday night noting that Rasool is no longer welcome in the United States.
“Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS,” Rubio said.
“We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA.”
For clarification’s sake, a persona non grata is a foreign diplomat whom the host country has asked to be recalled to their home country.
Rubio’s comments were in response to Rasool’s recent remarks during an online lecture about the Donald Trump administration.
“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 abroad,” Rasool was quoted saying.
Rubio’s tweet came amid US/South Africa frosty relationship ignited by the recent controversy surrounding land ownership in the African country.
The Expropriation Act signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in January allows the government to seize land without compensation under certain circumstances, in a bid to address decades-long inequality brewed by the apartheid era.
In response, US President Donald Trump halted funding to South Africa, describing the law as a “massive” violation of human rights.
The South African government has repeatedly denied this and has sought talks with Trump to address the issue.
