Former Sa Ambassador Criticises Ebrahim Rasool's Anti-trump Comments

A former South African ambassador, Dr Kingsley Makhubela, has criticised the countrys ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, for making comments deemed to be critical of US President Donald Trump .

At a webinar hosted by the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection MISTRA on Friday 14 March, Rasool said Trump was launching an assault on incumbency.

So, in terms of that, the supremacist assault on incumbency, we see it in the domestic politics of the USA, the MAGA movement, the Make America Great Again movement, he added.

Joel Pollak, who is reportedly lobbying to become the next US ambassador to South Africa , published Rasools comments on the conservative publication Breitbart .

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio quoted the Breitbart article on X and announced that Rasool is no longer welcome in our great country.

Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates Trump. We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered persona non grata , Rubio added.

This effectively means that the Trump administration is expelling Rasool, worsening the already strained relations between Pretoria and Washington.

Dr Kingsley Makhubela , who served as South Africas ambassador to various countries such as Kenya and Portugal, criticised Rasool for his comments.

There have been elements of these souring relations, but I dont think our ambassador has contributed positively to try to manage issues, he explained in an interview with SABC News on Saturday.

Rasool should have stayed out of the criticism of the current and former administrations. To say the current administration is an assault on incumbency is unfortunate. It means interfering in US issues. He should have stayed out of those issues. He didnt help.