EDITORIAL: Lessons from Rasool’s debacle

The unceremonious expulsion of Ebrahim Rasool as SA’s ambassador to the US is regrettable but understandable. The unprecedented move carries many lessons that Pretoria would ignore at its peril.

On Friday night, US secretary of state Marco Rubio announced that Rasool had been declared persona non grata and had until March 21 to leave the US.

This was over unguarded remarks he made in a public seminar about US President Donald Trump. He claimed that Trump was leading a white supremacist movement in the US, Rasool’s host country. By all accounts, these remarks were undiplomatic and ought not to have been said in private or in public.

It is significant to contextualise this debacle. Rasool, who has successfully served as SA’s ambassador to the US before, was named ambassador during the transition between the Joe Biden and Trump administrations.

He was appointed to thaw relations between the two countries, which chilled a year ago when the US ambassador accused SA of supplying arms to Russia in its war against Ukraine. For this claim, Reuben Brigety was excoriated and lashed by the SA government. He was served with a démarche, a diplomatic rebuke ahead of expulsion.

Through intense lobbying by civil society and government, relations were restored and an uneasy peace prevailed. Trade preferences enjoyed by SA under the African Growth & Opportunity Act, the unilateral US law granting duty-free access to thousands of SA exports to its market, were maintained.

When Rasool was named ambassador-designate, replacing an absentee ambassador, there was hope that Pretoria was beginning to prioritise the relationship with one of its major trading partners. This newspaper applauded his appointment.

Rasool is not a bad politician and probably deserves another shot as the president’s representative in another country. His first stint as ambassador to the US was decent, hence his reappointment. It seems, however, that Rasool had failed to read the mood in the Trump room the second time. Agreeing to participate in a foreign policy dialogue wasn’t, in and of itself, a mistake. Knowing what could and couldn’t be said in such a forum was a failure of judgment.

Career diplomats are often asked to weigh in on pressing current affairs issues involving their country. Knowing what to say or not say sets them apart from political appointees. Even in a Chatham House arrangement — where speakers’ remarks can be cited but not attributed — Rasool’s observations had no place. They were a rookie move.

Rasool, who was on the brink of brokering a detente in relations with the US, also failed to understand the determination of the Trump administration to bully SA into walking back on three policy issues: first, SA’s genocide charges against Israel at the International Court of Justice; second, support for Palestine; and, third, its domestic policy on land expropriation and BEE.

All these issues are divisive and emotional — and Pretoria has a duty to continue explaining them at home and abroad.

It’s not unusual for countries to differ on a range of issues but still maintain cordial relations that benefit their businesses and peoples. That said, the US was within its rights to expel Rasool. And Pretoria has to be commended for its measured response to the decision. A myopic response would be to expel all US diplomats from SA. That wouldn’t only be unhelpful; it would affect trade and people-to-people relations.

It is significant to understand this dispute as strictly between the governments of SA and US. Trade, commercial and people-to-people relations should be insulated from this spat. Similarly, Rasool’s blunder should be understood in its limited sense as a human blunder.

Rasool must return home. An apology to President Cyril Ramaphosa should take the edge off. However, sending him to Muslim countries, as has been suggested on social media, would be a xenophobic act and Ramaphosa should refrain from it. Equally, sending a white right-wing person to Washington would be a mistake.

SA should prioritise the relationship with the US government, its people and businesses.

There is so much at stake. The two countries — and Brazil — are part of the Group of 20 troika that has to deliver a successful summit in SA this November and ensure bilateral trade and political relations are restored. For now, SA’s priority is to identify and appoint Rasool’s replacement.