SA should try to rebuild relationship with the US – Rasool

He said: “Ebrahim Rasool is a race-bating politician who hates America and hates @POTUS. We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA.”

According to Sowetan’s sister publication TimesLIVE, this was after Rasool’s comments at a foreign policy seminar where he reportedly told attendees that US President Donald Trump was leading a white supremacist movement in America and the world.

On Sunday, Rasool said he stood by his “analysis”.

“We were analysing a political phenomenon, not a personality, not a nation and not even a government, so I stand by that,” he said.

He said SA should reset and rebuild its relationship with the US.

Rasool also said SA tried conventional diplomacy and tried to avoid discussions about genocide.

“We had to go to what is the diplomacy of ubuntu … [which] is not the art of lying for your country. It is the art of speaking the truth but gently.”

He also added: “South Africa is not a military superpower, South Africa is not an economic superpower, but South Africa has the ability again, to become a moral superpower, to stand up against chauvinism, to stand up against populism and to say what our people died for on 21 March that is what we stand for.”

SowetanLIVE