01-05-2025
Amid Tensions with South Africa, I See Opportunities
Armstrong Williams reflects on his return to Cape Town after 35 years, exploring the evolving landscape of South Africa's diplomatic relations with the United States amidst rising tensions and opportunities for constructive engagement.
Image: IOL
By Armstrong Williams
I am in Cape Town for the first time since 1990. On my earlier trip, I had the honour of meeting Nelson and Winnie Mandela soon after his release from Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town.
Our encounter was characterised by the fervent but solemn optimism of the time – a sense of boundless opportunity tempered by the knowledge that South Africa had some hard work ahead. Though Mandela was free, it would take years of negotiations and civil unrest before the country held its first free and fair democratic elections in 1994.
Today, South Africa is again facing serious domestic and diplomatic challenges, especially regarding its relationship with the United States, but I remain optimistic that the relationship can be repaired to mutual benefit.
Tensions are high. Less than a month ago, the Johannesburg City Council voted to allow the renaming of Sandton Drive, a major thoroughfare on which the United States consulate sits, after convicted terrorist Leila Khaled. In the same meeting, a Jewish city council member was met with chants of 'We want Hitler' and 'from the river to the sea' for displaying symbols of South African friendship with Israel.
As a member of the Marxist terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Khaled participated in two violent airplane hijackings in 1969 and 1970. During one, she attempted to detonate hand grenades on a flight full of civilians; thankfully for the passengers, the explosives failed to detonate.
Khaled continues to defend her actions, saying in a 2014 interview that 'I am ok with using all means of resistance… We are facing an apartheid State, Zionism as a movement, the Americans, and in general, the West.' She characterised the hijackings as 'my contribution to my people, to the struggle.'
South Africa's Patriotic Alliance party, which opposes the ruling coalition led by the African National Congress (ANC) party, characterised the impending renaming as 'profoundly insulting' to the United States and 'contrary to South Africa's diplomatic relations' with America, South Africa's second-largest trading partner.
A day after the Johannesburg meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio expelled South Africa's ambassador to the United States, Ebrahim Rasool, and declared him persona non grata. Secretary Rubio further characterised Rasool as 'a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates [President Trump].'
South Africa's Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country.
Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS.
We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON — Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) March 14, 2025
Video Player is loading.
Play Video
Play
Unmute
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
-:-
Loaded :
0%
Stream Type LIVE
Seek to live, currently behind live
LIVE
Remaining Time
-
0:00
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque
Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps
Reset
restore all settings to the default values Done
Close Modal Dialog
End of dialog window.
Advertisement
Next
Stay
Close ✕
The former ambassador has thoroughly earned that label. He's described Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin as 'one of the greatest inspirations,' and held prayers in his Cape Town mosque after the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyyeh, publicly praying for the liberation of 'Palestine in its entirety from the filth of the Jews.' At a foreign policy seminar, he accused President Trump of leading a global white supremacist movement.
Not all South African politicians share Rasool's antipathy towards America and our ally Israel. Last week, 15 members of parliament, including members of the ANC-led national unity government, visited Israel, meeting with Israeli lawmakers and touring communities that were devastated during the 10/7 massacres.
The ANC has vocally opposed Israel, accusing it of perpetrating genocide before the International Court of Justice, which has preliminarily affirmed the accusation in an outrageous decision. In last May's election, however, it lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since South Africa's first free elections in 1994, garnering just 40% of the vote.
Ashley Sauls, a member of parliament for the Patriotic Alliance, said 'The ANC does not speak for everyone…Israel is not an apartheid state, and there is no genocide going on in Gaza.'
