{"id":53535,"date":"2025-03-24T06:57:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T06:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/expelled-south-african-ambassador-ebrahim-rasool-returns-home-with-pride\/"},"modified":"2025-03-24T06:57:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T06:57:29","slug":"expelled-south-african-ambassador-ebrahim-rasool-returns-home-with-pride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/expelled-south-african-ambassador-ebrahim-rasool-returns-home-with-pride\/","title":{"rendered":"Expelled South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool returns home with pride"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The expulsion followed Rasool\u2019s critical comments about U.S. President Donald Trump during a webinar hosted by the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection, a South African think tank. <\/p>\n<p>Rasool was labeled &#8220;persona non grata&#8221; by the U.S. government, a move he viewed as an attempt to humiliate him. However, he embraced the label, calling it a &#8220;badge of honor&#8221; and expressed his pride in returning to a place where &#8220;Ubuntu&#8221; (the African philosophy of interconnectedness) is valued.<\/p>\n<p>Rasool spoke about South Africa\u2019s approach to diplomacy, highlighting &#8220;the diplomacy of Ubuntu&#8221; as the art of speaking truth gently, not flattering others, and engaging in intellectual conversations. He emphasized that despite conventional diplomacy\u2019s challenges, South Africa must continue to uphold its values.<\/p>\n<p>Rasool expressed hope that President Cyril Ramaphosa would find someone to repair the relationship with the U.S. while preserving South Africa\u2019s dignity. <\/p>\n<p>Despite criticism from U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Rasool believed his message reached the highest levels of the U.S. government, proving that the diplomacy of Ubuntu had worked.<\/p>\n<p>Rasool\u2019s expulsion was announced by Rubio, who described him as a &#8220;race-baiting politician&#8221; and gave him 72 hours to leave the country. <\/p>\n<p>Rasool is set to report the details of the incident to President Ramaphosa, who has downplayed the expulsion as a minor setback in relations between the two nations.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-84139\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/rasool-speaking.jpg\" alt=\"South African ambassador to the U.S., Ebrahim Rasool, returned to Cape Town on Sunday after being expelled by the U.S. earlier this month. \" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South African ambassador to the U.S., Ebrahim Rasool, returned to Cape Town on Sunday after being expelled by the U.S. earlier this month. Rasool and his wife, Rosieda, completed a 32-hour journey from the U.S. via Qatar, arriving to a warm welcome from supporters at Cape Town International Airport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000084140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-53535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000084140,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/rasool-speaking.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/rasool-speaking.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/rasool-speaking.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/rasool-speaking.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/rasool-speaking.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/rasool-speaking.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000084140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53535"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=53535"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=53535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}