SA Ambassador to the US Says SA Should Neither Panic Nor Snub US Over Expropriation Act

Ebrahim Rasool said he believes President Cyril Ramaphosa took the right approach in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday night to assert that South Africa won’t be bullied. 

FILE: Ebrahim Rasool speaks onstage at the Shared Interest 19th Annual Awards Gala on 18 March 2013 in New York City. Picture: Donald Bowers / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

CAPE TOWN - South African ambassador to the United States (US), Ebrahim Rasool says the government should neither panic nor snub the world superpower over the misinformation it issued this week in response to the country’s Expropriation Act. 

He said he’s already met with not only anti-apartheid allies of South Africa but also Republican congresspeople, who have sought clarity on the law. 

Rasool said he believes President Cyril Ramaphosa took the right approach in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday night to assert that South Africa won’t be bullied. 

Rasool said while this has been a tough week for South Africa’s relations with the United States, it’s tested the country’s dignity and ability to stand up for itself. 

“How do we strengthen our resolve to resist false attacks on us, unprecedented and precipitate actions against South Africa without getting on our knees to look for some mercy?”

Describing this week’s social media posts by US President Donald Trump and his secretary of state, Marco Rubio as ‘vicious’, Rasool said the misinformation has been fuelled by the expatriate community in the US, on the back of the grievances of a small, white community in South Africa. 

“How can you condemn a very, very mild Expropriation Act and have a grand act in mind for Greenland, a grand expropriation scheme for Gaza, but you are worried about what you are told would be the expropriation of farms?”

Rasool said he will be working around the clock and meeting with US Congress representatives to set the record straight about South Africa’s laws.