News24 reports that ANC “elder” Snuki Zikalala has “openly challenged“ President Cyril Ramaphosa’s stance against exacerbating the tensions between South Africa and the United States.
Just a day after Ramaphosa’s warning, Zikalala claimed that attempting to mend relations with what he termed an “implacable enemy” was nothing short of “naïve”.
In a statement marking Human Rights Day, Zikalala said: “As the ANC, our strategic position, both politically and diplomatically, should be to oppose, call out, and build alliances against the rising reactionary, imperialist moves of [US President Donald] Trump and his allies. It is naïve to believe that you can rebuild diplomatic relations with an implacable enemy.
News24 reports that Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said Ramaphosa had asked for restraint in activities that may further fuel tensions, including making political statements at expelled ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool’s homecoming rally yesterday morning.
Magwenya is quoted as saying: “The president urges people to refrain from partaking or engaging in action that may seem inflammatory and worsen the already volatile diplomatic relationship with the US.”
According to the BBC, Rasool was greeted at Cape Town International Airport yesterday members of the African National Congress, South African Communist Party and South African Trade Union, who sang and danced. Some held placards reading “Ebrahim Rasool, you have served our country with honour!!!”
In a separate report, News24 reports that Rasool stands by the remarks that prompted his expulsion.
He is quoted as saying: “There’s nothing that I will say there that I would not say elsewhere. And so, I would stand by my analysis because we were analysing a political phenomenon, not a personality, not a nation, and not even a government. And so, I stand by that.”
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