Rasool welcomes Ramaphosa's move to send envoys around world to give clarity on SA's foreign policy

CAPE TOWN - South Africa's ambassador to the United States, Ebrahim Rasool, has welcomed the decision by President Cyril Ramaphosa to send envoys around the world to provide clarity on the country’s foreign policy.
 
It comes in the wake of unprecedented action taken by the United States against South Africa in response to misinformation around the Expropriation Act.
 
Speaking to EWN just hours before President Donald Trump issued an executive order offering refuge to Afrikaners, Rasool said he had already been engaging anti-apartheid allies in America to correct the misinformation peddled by expatriates and white minority groups.
 
Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool said that he was neither panic-stricken nor complacent about the actions being taken by the US administration against South Africa.
 
But he pointed out that the US also stands to lose should the US cut preferential trade ties with South Africa.
 
Appointments to the commerce and trade portfolios within President Donald Trump's cabinet, are yet to be confirmed.
 
"I think there is a role for those envoys but it's a role at the right time, at the right moment. At this point, it could be very useful to pre-empt what could be done on the trade front and so we would want ministers Ronald Lamola and the minister of trade, industry and competition, Parks Tau, to be here."
 
Rasool advised that Ramaphosa first send his envoys to Western countries which also feel under attack by the US to find a common approach towards what he called a "capricious superpower".
 
"Our job, as the mission in the US, is to soften that ground, gather the intelligence and to be able to find where the soft points are that cause this administration to rethink its course of action."
 
He believes Trump's action against a number of countries, including South Africa, is largely transactional in nature and says this country also has leverage to bargain.