Faisal Abbas 
South African Ambassador to Washington Ibrahim Rasul during a speech in Cape Town, December 15, 2020 (Getty)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Friday that the United States expelled the Ambassador of South Africa to Washington, accusing him of hating the country and its President Donald Trump. “We have nothing to discuss with him, and therefore he is considered an unwanted person,” said a publication of Rubio on the X platform. South African ambassador Rubio described “a politician fueling ethnic tensions.”
South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States is no longer will in our Great Country.
Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who haates America and hatses @Potus.
We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered persona non grata.https://t.co/mnunwogdx
– Secretary Marco Rubio (@secrubio) March 14, 2025
The expulsion of the South African ambassador falls in the context of an escalating tension between Washington and Bretoria. Last February, Trump froze US aid to South Africa, against the backdrop of a law to confiscate property, which was considered a discrimination against white farmers. One of Trump’s closest allies in South Africa, Elon Musk, who accused the government of South African President Cyril Ramafuza of following “public racist royal laws”.
According to government data, the United States allocated a budget estimated at $ 440 million to South Africa in 2023, but after the Land Money Law 2024, signed by South African President Cyril Ramafuza on January 24, Trump decided to suspend funding, accusing the South African government of “seizing land” and treating certain groups “very badly.” On the other hand, South Africa responded to the American accusation, stressing that it has a constitutional democracy committed to a deep commitment to the rule of law and justice, and stressed that “the government did not seize any land.” South African land ownership is an exciting issue, as it raises efforts to address the inherited inequality from the apartheid system.
During South Africa, a meeting of the Twentieth Group’s foreign ministers last February, Ramafuza described a “wonderful” call between him and Trump after the latter took over the US presidency for a second non -consecutive term in January. However, he pointed out that the relationships later “seemed a little exit from its course.” While Rubio announced at the time that he would miss the talks, accusing the host government of “anti -America.”
(France Press, the new Arab)
