Picture it: an ambassador to South Africa attends a think-tank in their home country. There, they describe President Cyril Ramaphosa as racist. Of course it is an unimaginable act for a career diplomat from any respected country because it is the opposite of their job, which is to maintain good relations or create them where they do not exist.
Ebrahim Rasool had just one job. A nicely paid, prestigious job. Appointed ambassador to the US for a second stint in the months ahead of the second Trump administration, he cannot have been unaware of the sensitivities around South Africa’s relationship with the US. He was sent there precisely because he did know, because he did understand.
And yet he was incapable of turning down an opportunity to perform his careworn political theoreticism, unable to put his country ahead of some wholly unimportant opportunity to burnish his own credentials and bask briefly in the warm glow this country casts upon the softly spoken elder who uses long words.
Rasool, in other words, represented the ANC’s approach to foreign affairs to a T — arrogantly, with expected impunity and scant regard for our country.
On his flight home, Rasool may take comfort from those frantically reverse-engineering some sense into his gemors. The Americans were looking for any excuse, they mutter. He didn’t say anything that wasn’t true, they wail. The US isn’t a particularly important trading partner, they contend.
None of it is relevant. What matters is that US President Donald Trump is tearing into this country and that diplomats need to be diplomatic. We need to replace Rasool with a serious person who will put South Africa first.
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