Ebrahim Rasool Vows To Wear Persona Non Grata 'as A Badge Of Dignity'

Expelled South African ambassador to the United States US Ebrahim Rasool has returned to the country - and has vowed to wear his declaration as a persona non grata as a badge of dignity.

Rasool addressed supporters, who were mostly from the African National Congress and South African Communist Party, outside the Cape Town International Airport on Sunday 23 March.

Persona non grata is meant to humiliate you, but when you return to a crowd like this with warmth and a sense of Ubuntu, then I will wear my persona non grata as a badge of dignity, a badge of our values and a badge that we have done the right thing, he said.

The US government stopped recognising him as South Africas ambassador on 17 March and gave him until Friday, 21 March to leave. He touched down in Cape Town on Sunday after travelling for 32 hours.

His expulsion followed comments he made at a webinar that US President Donald Trump was launching a supremacist assault on incumbency.

Rasool said he returns with no regrets, adding that he did not succeed in turning away the lies of a white genocide.

We would have preferred to say that we have won for you AGOA , but we could not win it by withdrawing our case from the International Court of Justice against Israel, he added.

We would have preferred to say that we have won for you trade deals, but we could not do so by allowing the US to choose who must be our friends and who must be our enemies.

However, the ex-envoy emphasised that South Africa should not be anti-American and must rebuild and reset its relations with the US.

South Africa is not a military or economic superpower but is has the ability to become a moral superpower and to stand up against chauvinism and populism, Rasool said.