Simon Barber suggests that as our US ambassador Ebrahim Rasool will be an effective interlocutor with the incoming administration (“SA’s in good hands as Ebrahim Rasool returns to Washington”, December 2). I beg to differ, and suspect the appointment was made on the assumption that Kamala Harris would win the election.
Last time around Rasool organised memorial events for Nelson Mandela in Washington, which went down well with the Obama administration. This time he has to interact with a distinctly different cultural element that is seen as rude, uneducated and deplorable by the Democratic Party elite.
Critically, Rasool must protect automotive, fruit and wine exports to the US, both against SA’s possible exclusion from African Growth & Opportunity Act benefits and from 100% tariffs on Brics exports to the US. Geopolitically, Rasool will be in the thick of it, particularly with regard to the escalating Middle East crisis.
How is he even going to get a meeting with the Trump administration, let alone be listened to?
James Cunningham
Camps Bay
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