Rasool Was Close To Securing 'strategic' White House Meeting: Dirco

Ebrahim Rasool was about to secure a strategic meeting with the White House at the time of his expulsion as South Africas ambassador to the US .

This is according to Chrispin Phiri, the spokesperson for International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola.

What we saw in Washington recently was significant progress by Ambassador Rasool. He was on the verge of securing a very strategic meeting in the White House. So, this development does somewhat scuttle those significant developments, Phiri told SABC News on Monday.

The US State Department declared Rasool persona non grata on Friday 14 March and gave him until 21 March to leave Washington.

This after he said at a webinar that US President Donald Trump was launching a supremacist assault on incumbency.

Phiri said despite Rasools expulsion, the embassy still has a Charge dAffaires who will continue the work the outgoing ambassador started.

We will be attending to replacing Ambassador Rasool soon, so all of those processes are underway to ensure that his replacement is able to hit the ground running, he added.

Speaking to the media at the Bana Pele Early Childhood Development Leadership Summit on Monday, Ramaphosa also said Rasool had made a great deal of progress in ensuring meaningful diplomatic engagements between Washington and Pretoria.

This is a hiccup that we are working on straightening out. We are continuing to engage with the US, he said.

Pretoria is putting together a delegation to Washington in a bid to ease strained relations between the two countries.