On Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US ambassador for South Africa is “no longer welcome in our great power.”
“Ebrahim Lasor is a politician who hates America and feeds on the race he hates,” President Donald Trump argued that Rubio in his X post.
“We have nothing to talk to him, so he is considered Persona Non Grata,” Rubio wrote. Declaring someone's Persona Nongrata (PNG) is a serious diplomatic responsibility and usually forces them to leave the host country.
LaSaul must leave the United States by March 21, a State Department spokesperson said on Saturday.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called the decision “remorse” and “expressed his commitment to building mutually beneficial relationships.
“The presidency urges all relevant and influenced stakeholders to maintain established diplomatic ornamental decorations in their involvement in their issues,” Ramaphosa's office said in a statement.
Rubio's post linked to an article by right-wing news outlet Breitbart about LaSaul's comments on Trump's election and the think tank on Friday regarding the presidency.
The PNG declaration against Rasool is the latest chapter in a plunging relationship between the US and South Africa. Tensions were between the two countries under the Biden administration. However, since Trump began his second term, the US has taken a series of punitive measures against South Africa. South Africa met Elon Musk, an alliance tech billionaire whose government was born and raised domestically, not just from Trump.
Trump and Musk argue that white farmers across the country are being discriminated against under the land reform policy that South African government says is necessary to improve the apartheid heritage.
In a comment that appears to have sparked Rubio's PNG declaration, Rasool was discussing “continuation” and “discontinuity” from the Biden administration.
“What Donald Trump is launching is attacking incumbents, those in power, by mobilizing supremacy over incumbents at home, and overseas,” said LaSaul, who was on his second tour as a US ambassador. He presented his qualification to then-President Joe Biden in mid-January, and previously served in Washington, D.C. under the Obama administration.
He described America's great moves as “not merely against supremacist instincts” but as a change in the US demographics.
“So we need to take that into consideration. And then I think there's data that supports, for example, this wall is being built, the deportation movement, to understand instinctive, naturalists, racist people.
Lasor said Musk is involved in far-right British politics and that it was “not a coincidence” that Vice President JD Vance met with the leaders of far-right German political parties before the election.
“We then start to say what the role of Africans in that whole project was,” he continued. “It's obviously about projecting white victims as dog whis.”
In January, South Africa enacted an expropriation law and attempted to revoke the apartheid legacy. This created a huge disparity in land ownership between its majority black and small white population.
Under apartheid, non-white South Africans were forcibly confiscated from their land for the benefit of white people. Today, about 30 years after racism officially ended in the country, Black South Africans, who make up more than 80% of the 63 million population, own only about 4% of their private land.
The expropriation law enforces South African governments to take the land and redistribute it – in some cases there is no obligation to pay compensation – if the seizure turns out to be “fair, fair and in the public interest.”
Ramaphosa said the law “ensures public access to the land in a fair and fair manner.” However, the White House opposes it, and Trump and Musk believe that land reform policies discriminate against white South Africans.
The policy has prompted a strong response from the Trump administration.
In early February, Rubio announced he would not attend a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Johannesburg, saying at the time “South Africa is doing something very bad.”
“Expropriation of private property. Use the G20 to promote “solidarity, equality and sustainability.” In other words, DEI and climate change,” a U.S. diplomat argued. “My job is not to smooth out waste taxpayer money or anti-Americanism, but to move forward with the national interests of the US.”
A few days later, Trump suspended aid to South Africa, claiming discrimination against white farmers. In the same executive order, the president said the United States would “promote resettlement of African refugees who flee government-sponsored racially-based discrimination, including racist property confiscation.” Earlier this month, Trump said in a social media post that “people from South Africa (families and!) who are trying to flee the country for security reasons will be invited to the United States on a rapid path to citizenship.”
A State Department spokesman told CNN on Saturday that the agency has “coordinated with the Department of Homeland Security to begin implementing refugees resettlement,” adding that “the initial interview is ongoing.”
Nimi Princewill and Lucas Lilieholm of CNN contributed to this report.
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