Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared the Ambassador to the US from South Africa, Embrahim Rasool, persona non grata.
Rasool, 62, a South African muslim of mixed English-Javanese-Dutch-Indian heritage, called President Donald Trump a white supremacist and made disparaging comments about the US at a conference in Johannesburg last week.
He made the comments in a speech about the current SA plans to expropriate land, farms and businesses from white Boer and Afrikaaner families to give to blacks. The ruling ANC recently changed the laws in South Africa to allow the lands to be taken without recompense.
Rasool had been Ambassador to the US from 2010-2015. He was re-nominated by SA president Cyril Ramaphosa near the end of Bidens term and was accepted by Biden on 13 January of this year.
For those unfamiliar with the term in diplomatic circles, declaring someone persona non grata – Latin for a person not wanted or an unwelcome person – is tantamount to expelling that person from the country. A host country may declare any member of a diplomatic staff persona non grata at any time without any explanation.