The crowds that welcomed former South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool in Cape Town after his expulsion from the United States were so large that he needed a police escort. And Rasool seemed glad to be home.

"A declaration of persona non grata (a diplomat who is unwelcome and unaccepted) is meant to humiliate you. But when you return to crowds like this, and with warmth, then I will wear my persona non grata as a badge of dignity," he said.

But despite the defiance and unconventional circumstances that led to Rasool's expulsion from the US, there is no getting around the fact that this is a new low point between Pretoria and Washington. The US rarely expels ambassadors, even from countries deemed unfriendly, and certainly not from nations with which it has strong trade relations.

"That the relationship between these countries has broken down is an open secret," political analyst Ntsikelelo Breakfast, from the Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha, told DW.

US President Donald Trump had already issued an executive order in February cutting all funding to South Africa. Trump's administration accuses South Africa of supporting the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran. Additionally, South Africa brought a genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice, which has irked the US, a firm ally of Israel and its biggest arms supplier.

Without providing evidence, Trump also accuses South........

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