President Cyril Ramaphosa is yet to appoint South Africa’s Ambassador to the US, almost ten months after Ebrahim Rasool was expelled. Ruiters reportedly has a strong backing from the business community and the DA, who view him as a pragmatic, professional choice capable of navigating US markets and politics. Other candidates are ANC veteran and former Minister of Defence and Constitutional Development Roelf Meyer, Marthinus van Schalkwyk (former leader of the National Party who later joined the ANC and served as Minister of Tourism), Andries Nel (the current Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development), Gerhardus Koornhof (President’s parliamentary counsellor), Trevor Manuel (former Finance Minister) and Tony Leon, who is a former DA leader and former Ambassador to Argentina.
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) on Tuesday would not divulge what stage, the process to replace Rasool, had reached. Following Rasool’s expulsion, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed former Deputy Minister of Finance, Mcebisi Jonas, as a special envoy to the US in April to manage bilateral, trade and diplomatic priorities while the permanent position remained vacant. However, the US government denied Jonas a diplomatic visa and rejected his credentials, citing past critical remarks in which he reportedly called Trump a “racist”, “homophobe”, and a “narcissistic right-winger” in 2020. Dirco Minister Ronald Lamola, in August, stated that the process of replacing Rasool with a new ambassador to the US was at an “advanced stage” with a decision “imminent”, emphasising that the vacant post was not the cause of US tariff issues, which were a global phenomenon.
