Expelled South Africa Ambassador to the U.S. Ebrahim Rasool returned to his country of birth today but his tail was clearly not between his legs.
He struck a defiant yet conciliatory tone when he addressed supporters after touching down in Cape Town earlier.
Rasool had been shown the ambassadorial door out of America about 10 days ago after his fiery criticism of President Donald Trump’s America as a “white supremacist” leader.
Declared persona non grata for scathing criticism of Trump
Within hours of the remarks, the former Western Cape premier had been declared persona non grata, unwelcome back in Washington DC but only to pack his bags within 72 hours.
The deadline was further extended to expire on a day so significant for South Africa and its human rights culture — March 21, one-time Sharpeville Day turned Human Rights Day.
Two days later, Rasool stood tall unrepentant yet unable to throw the baby with the bathwater.
“The reason we were, and are, careful as South Africans about our relationship with the USA, and why President Ramaphosa must be given the chance to pick up the relationship with the USA is because America is not just one simple construct. It’s the complexity that’s created an unbroken relationship between South Africans and the USA for about 50 years.
Our leaders were labelled terrorists
“In the 1970s and 80s the White House and Congress labelled our leaders terrorists, but American workers refused to offload apartheid goods and the citizens refused to eat South African fruit. Our relationship was with the people.
“In the 1980s the White House refused to pass the anti-apartheid law, but American citizens forced Congress and the Senate to veto [1980s US president Ronald] Reagan. So, Congress joined the people, and our relationship was with them as well.
“In the 1990s and 2000s the White House, together with Congress passed AGOA and Pepfar, and we enjoyed a beneficial, yet critical relationship with them, despite unease with the War on Terror, while our citizens marched with their American and global counterparts against it.
The US is very important to South Africa but…
“In most of these years, 600 US companies came here, employing over 200 000 workers, adding value to our products, and investing in our economy.”
But Rasool posited a South Africa equally convinced it had the higher ground.
“We must continue to pursue a mutually beneficial relationship with the USA whilst standing firm on the principle that South Africa’s hard-won Constitution provides that our country’s domestic and foreign policy is ours to decide.
“For us in South Africa, especially, we who were the oppressed under apartheid, we have a DNA that is attuned to the human condition.
“When we call to mind the many massacres apartheid visited upon us, from Sharpeville to Soweto, from the Vaal Triangle to Langa, and from Sebokeng to Boipathong; then we are attuned to a genocide in Palestine and our conscience will not allow us to ignore it.
South Africans know know the pain of the oppression
“When we have been the victims of apartheid, and saw how it cannot tolerate free speech, an independent judiciary, and even peaceful dissent; then we can smell the birth of chauvinism globally, sense the fear it engenders, hear its words, and see its signs.
“We must fight for the relationship, but not at the expense of our dignity because we will not be bullied. We must have an ambassador urgently in Washington, but not to confirm the idea that only a white ambassador devoid of our values can speak to a white president.”
Hopefully the relationship is salvageable
Rasool said he hoped that South Africa is able to salvage its relationship with the USA “because it is an important relationship for both our countries and our peoples but it is a relationship of mutual dignity and respect”.
The former ambassador touched on what many experts have opined in the real reason for the breakdown on SA-USA relations – the Genocide case SOuth Africa has filed against Israel in the International Criminal Court.
“…We must never trade our sovereignty, lest we be told that China and Cuba cannot be our friends. Our friends are the mighty in the G20. But they are also the downtrodden, the oppressed, and the occupied, whether in Sudan or in Palestine. Withdrawing from the International Court of Justice is not an option until Palestine is free and Israel is accountable.”
