Members from the ANC leaders, Al Jama-ah and a few trade unions were in attendance for the arrival of former ambassador to the United States of America (U.S), Ebrahim Rasool, and his wife, Rosieda, to show their support on Sunday.
Rasool was welcomed with song and dance at Cape Town International Airport on Sunday, where many came out to show support for them after their 52-hour journey from the US.
Rasool made headlines after he was expelled from the US for remarks made during a webinar held by the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (Mistra). The theme was 'Implications of changes in US administrations for SA and Africa'.
During the webinar, Rasool said people should get hold of the framework document of South Africa’s national interests — because this is going to be a guide for SA during these very turbulent moments that we are navigating between our values and our interests.
Rasool explained that his remarks were to South African intelligentsia, intellectuals, political leaders and others to alert them to a change of tradition in the United States, and seeing that the old way of doing business with the U.S. was not going to work.
Member of Parliament from Al Jama-ah, and also a member of the international relations portfolio committee, Shameelah Salie, said that they came out to support Rasool as he is a brother of the party and of the Islamic faith, and that “it is very important for Muslims to come together especially when one of our own is currently being victimised”.
“I was on the webinar, on that particular day, and what is being purported that Ebrahim Rasool said is totally incorrect, and is a narrative, like so many others, that is being created by certain entities. We shouldn’t be fools, we should listen to things ourselves, and then determine from there what was actually said, and what is the bigger agenda,” Salie said.
“More than ever, it is important, no matter whether we have some differences, that we come together and unite, and show the force that we are. We are very proud of what brother Rasool was speaking about, with regards to the Palestinian issue. No one can be silent about that.
“From the word go, he was already being intimidated, victimised for the position that he was holding as ambassador. So the position of him being ‘persona non grata’ under Donald Trump is obviously one of the matters on their agenda, simply because of his stance on Palestine, which we are all very knowledgeable about.”
Cosatu’s provincial secretary in the Western Cape, Malvern de Bruyn, said that they were there to welcome back a “son of the soil”.
“We love him, he is one of us. Cosatu is disappointed with the decision to expel him because it was not really an informed decision taken by the American government. They should have used better channels to discuss and engage on a particular matter, what they have done now is totally unacceptable and we can’t agree to that.”
De Bryn said that they wanted to show up so that he doesn’t feel isolated or think that there wasn’t support for him.
SACP provincial secretary in the Western Cape, Benson Ngqentsu, said that they came to make the point that they commend Rasool.
“He has represented our country very well, and if you listen to Rasool, every statement he makes is grounded in the era of our revolutionaries. Rasool refused to submit to the right-wing populists and authoritarian imperial forces, and for that reason we commend.
“We reject his expulsion, no other country must tell us who we must deploy as our ambassador,” Ngqentsu said.
“This is South Africa, we are not going to be told how we must run our country and what policies we must formulate. And the next ambassador must be an ambassador focused on championing and communicating our transformation agenda including land, the expropriation of land, and the nationalisation of our state-owned entities.”
Deputy-secretary of the ANC Women’s League in the Western Cape, Connie Croats, said: “Comrade Rasool is a son of the soil, this is his base, how can we not come here and support him. He is a stalwart of the ANC.
“He has made many inroads on behalf of the ANC in the Western Cape, as the Dullah Omar region, we are here to show him our support for what he has done internationally for us as a country, and we are grateful for the work that he has done.”
When addressing the crowd outside the airport, Rasool said that the label of “'persona non grata' is meant to humiliate you, but that when you return to a crowd like this, and the sense of Ubuntu, then I will wear my persona non grata as badge of dignity”.
Rasool stressed that South Africa must fix the relationship with the United States or sit out the next four years.
“This is what we have been trying to do, and we must wish that President Cyril Ramaphosa must be able to find someone who can mend that relationship without sacrificing our values.
“That we don't be in a situation where the Palestinians are lost in this world without someone that they can depend on, like they have depended on South Africa…
“I want to say that 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, and to say that when our people died going to Sharpeville on the 21st of March 1960 - that that's what we stand for. Foremost amongst that is justice. Foremost amongst that is inclusion. Foremost amongst that is truth. We can modulate our truth. We can have a megaphone that is loud, or we can have a megaphone that is soft, but we will never stop speaking the truth. So, we are not here to throw away our interests with the United States.”