United States has declared Ebrahim Rasool, South African ambassador to the country, a persona non grata, expelling him.
Marco Rubio, US secretary of state announced this in a tweet on Friday night
He said, “Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS.”
“We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA.”
The expulsion came after Rasool made some critical remarks about the Donald Trump administration during an online lecture.
He said, “What Donald Trump is launching is an assault on incumbency, those who are in power, by mobilising a supremacism against the incumbency, at home… and abroad.”
There have been tense relations between South Africa and US recently, due to controversy surrounding land ownership in the former.
The Expropriation Act signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in January allows the government to seize land without compensation under certain circumstances, in a bid to address decades-long inequality brewed by the apartheid era.
In response, US President Donald Trump stopped funding to South Africa, saying the law is a massive violation of human rights.
