The South African ambassador expelled from the United States and declared persona non grata by the Trump administration has received a warm welcome home by hundreds of supporters.
Crowds gathered at Cape Town International Airport, surrounding Ebrahim Rasool and his wife Rosieda as they emerged in the arrivals terminal and were guided through the building by a police escort.
"A declaration of persona non grata is meant to humiliate you," Mr Rasool told supporters, using a megaphone.
"But when you return to crowds like this, and with warmth … like this, then I will wear my persona non grata as a badge of dignity.
"It was not our choice to come home, but we come home with no regrets."
Mr Rasool was expelled for comments he made on a webinar, including that the Make America Great Again movement was partly a response to "a supremacist instinct".
More than a week ago, the Trump administration declared him persona non grata and removed his diplomatic immunities and privileges, giving him until this Friday to leave the US.
It is highly unusual for the US to expel a foreign ambassador.
But in his address to supporters on Sunday, Mr Rasool said it was crucial South Africa fix its relationship with the US after President Donald Trump issued an executive order last month cutting all funding to the nation.
Mr Trump alleged the South African government was supporting the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran, and pursuing anti-white policies at home.
"We don’t come here to say we are anti-American," Mr Rasool said to the crowd.
"We are not here to call on you to throw away our interests with the United States."
In a post on social media platform X on March 14, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Mr Rasool was a "race-baiting politician" who hates the US and Mr Trump.
While Mr Rubio did not directly cite a reason, his post linked to a story by the conservative Breitbart news site, which reported on a talk Mr Rasool had given on a webinar organised by a South African think tank.
In his talk, Mr Rasool spoke of the Trump administration’s crackdowns on diversity and equity programs and immigration and mentioned the possibility of a US where white people would soon no longer be in the majority.
On Sunday, Mr Rasool told supporters he stood by these comments, saying he was merely alerting intellectuals and political leaders in South Africa that the US and its politics had changed.
"It is not the US of Obama, it is not the US of Clinton, it is a different US and therefore our language must change," Mr Rasool said.
"I would stand by my analysis because we were analysing a political phenomenon, not a personality, not a nation, and not even a government."
Mr Rasool also said South Africa would resist pressure from the US — and anyone else — to drop its case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The Trump administration has cited that case against Israel as one of the reasons it alleges South Africa is anti-American.
AP
