By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Ebrahim Rasool, the former South African Ambassador to the US who was expelled by President Donald Trump over his criticism of the US government, has returned home, saying he has “no regrets”.
He arrived at Cape Town International Airport in the early hours of Sunday to a rousing welcome by hundreds of supporters who came to show solidarity.
Relations between the US and South Africa have deteriorated since January, when Trump assumed office as the 47th President of the United States.
Rasool, 62, speaking at a webinar organised by a South African think tank, accused Trump of “mobilising a supremacism” as the US white population faced becoming a minority.
He said the event was meant to “alert South African intellectuals and political leaders to a change in the way we live, to a change in the way we are positioned in the United States, that the old way of doing business with the US was not a good one”.
Following his comments, he was declared unwelcome in the US after Secretary of State Marco Rubio called him a “race-baiting politician who hates America”.
Rasool defended his comments on Sunday morning after touching down in Cape Town.
While waiting for Rasool to arrive at the airport, members of the African National Congress, South African Communist Party, and South African Trade Union members sang and danced.
Some held placards reading, “Ebrahim Rasool, you have served our country with honour!!!”
In January, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law a bill allowing the state to seize land without compensation, provided it was in the “public interest”.
The move followed years of calls for land reform, with activists and politicians seeking to redistribute farmland largely held by the white minority.
Washington said the land reform law was targeted at the white minority in a racist move.
In response, Trump signed an executive order cutting aid to South Africa, citing “unjust racial discrimination” against white Afrikaners – descendants of mainly Dutch settlers who first arrived in the 17th century.
Rasool had previously served as US ambassador from 2010 to 2015, when Barack Obama was president. His reappointment last year was due to his previous experience and extensive network of Washington contacts. However, throughout his stay, Rasool was unable to hold talks with Trump.
