Was Rasool Hung Out to Dry?

AMBASSADOR EXPELLED: THERE WILL BE 'NO RETALIATION AND NO CHALLENGE' - RAMAPHOSA

- Masoka Dube

Is the South African government's lukewarm reaction to the expulsion of ambassador Ebrahim Rasool by the American government an indication that it disapproves of his comments about the Trump administration? President Cyril Ramaphosa's spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said there would be no retaliation and no challenge to it either.

"On the expulsion of ambassador Rasool, while regrettable, there are lessons to be drawn from the experience and we will reflect on those lessons," said Magwenya.

The Sunday Times quoted an anonymous South African government official as saying: "You can't criticise your host country in the manner that he did, using the type of language he did.

[Rasool] knows this because it is part of the training diplomats get."

Rasool made his comments at a foreign policy webinar organised by the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection on Friday.

"I think what Donald Trump is launching is an assault on incumbency, those who are in power, by mobilising a supremacism against the incumbency at home," said Rasool.

"And I think I've illustrated abroad, as well.

"So in terms of that, the supremacist assault on incumbency, we see it in the domestic politics of the US - the Maga movement, the Make America Great Again movement, as a response not simply to a supremacist instinct but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in which the voting electorate in the US is projected to become 48% white."