Former South African ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool has opened up about the tough decision he made to decline an ANC deployment to lead its task team in the Western Cape after its disbandment.
Rasool said seven months after returning from the US, he has had to engage the world without the ANC. He said his work with the World for All Foundation occupied most of his time, leading to his decision to decline the ANC’s deployment.
Earlier this month the ANC announced it had resolved to disband its provincial leadership structure in the Western Cape, installing a provincial task team in its place. The decision was taken two years after its conference. The ANC has battled to retain a stable provincial leadership in the province for more than a decade.
The party announced Rasool would lead the provincial task team, but on Tuesday secretary-general Fikile Mbalula told journalists Rasool declined the position. “He understood that the role of leading in the Western Cape required singular focus,” Mbalula said.
Rasool, who is a former premier of the Western Cape, said he did not take this decision lightly, tracing back his service in the ANC.
I will not have the 100% effort I usually bring to a task of the ANC, especially not one of leading an overly large and diverse collection in the face of a resourced and slick incumbent party in the Western Cape
— Ebrahim Rasool
“During the 1980s I was asked to sacrifice for freedom. I gladly did so. During the mid-1990s I was asked to lead the ANC from the low 33%, and we took it to government in the province. After Polokwane, the ANC led by [Jacob] Zuma asked me to resign as premier. I did so,” he said.
“But this is a different time, a different ANC and I’m a different person. Seven months after returning from the US, I’ve had to engage the world without the ANC. I’ve signed the contract with a global entity, and I’ve advanced the work of the World for All Foundation.”
Rasool said his work with the organisation takes him to vulnerable parts of the world needing humanitarian and development interventions, as well as societies in conflict requiring peacemaking and statecraft. He said he is able to engage in geopolitical debate and platforms where a coherent and courageous response is needed “to the bullying of a superpower as its dominance crumbles.
“These keep me busy and I will not have the 100% effort I usually bring to a task of the ANC, especially not one of leading an overly large and diverse collection in the face of a resourced and slick incumbent party in the Western Cape. I wish the ANC well in their task and the leadership of Jerimia Thuynsma.”
On March 14 US secretary of state Marco Rubio posted on X that Rasool was “no longer welcome” in the US. “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 GRATA,” he said.
This was after Rasool’s comments at a foreign policy seminar where he reportedly told attendees US President Donald Trump was leading a white supremacist movement in America and the world.
The ANC’s decision to disband the Western Cape’s provincial leadership claimed its first victims when its former secretary Neville Delport defected to the DA last week.
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