Former South African ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool has declined the ANC’s request to lead a team tasked with rebuilding the party in the Western Cape, saying his work with the World for All Foundation required his full attention.
Earlier this month the ANC announced it would disband its leadership structure in the Western Cape and install a provincial task team after more than a decade of leadership and structural instability in the province.
The party had announced Rasool would lead the provincial task team, but on Tuesday secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said Rasool had declined the position. “He understood that the role of leading in the Western Cape required singular focus,” Mbalula said.
Rasool, who is a former premier of the Western Cape, said he did not take this decision lightly, having served the ANC for almost four decades.
“During the 1980s I was asked to sacrifice for freedom. I gladly did so. During the mid-1990s I was asked to lead the ANC from the low 33% [support in the province], and we took it to government in the province. After Polokwane, the ANC led by [Jacob] Zuma asked me to resign as premier. I did so,” he said.
“But this is a different time, a different ANC, and I’m a different person. Seven months after returning from the US, I’ve had to engage the world without the ANC. I’ve signed the contract with a global entity, and I’ve advanced the work of the World for All Foundation.”
Rasool said his work with the civil society organisation takes him to areas of the world in need of humanitarian and development interventions.
In an apparent reference to the US, he added he is able to engage in geopolitical debate on platforms where a coherent and courageous response is needed “to the bullying of a superpower as its dominance crumbles”.
“These matters keep me busy, and I will not have the 100% effort I usually bring to a task of the ANC, especially not one of leading an overly large and diverse collection in the face of a resourced and slick incumbent party in the Western Cape. I wish the ANC well in their task and the leadership of Jerimia Thuynsma.”
Rasool invoked the fury of the Trump administration during his diplomatic tenure in the US after reportedly telling attendees at a foreign policy seminar that US President Donald Trump was leading a white supremacist movement in America and the world.
On March 14 US secretary of state Marco Rubio announced on X that Rasool was “no longer welcome” in that country. “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,” he wrote.
The ANC’s decision to disband the Western Cape’s provincial leadership claimed its first victim last week when Neville Delport, the party’s former provincial secretary, defected to the DA.
TimesLIVE
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.