South Africa Taps Apartheid-Era Negotiator as US Ambassador

South Africa has named Roelf Meyer, a former chief negotiator for the apartheid government, as its new ambassador to the United States. This move is seen as an attempt to mend the deeply strained diplomatic relationship between the two countries.

Meyer replaces Ebrahim Rasool, who was expelled in March 2025 after criticizing the Trump administration. Since Donald Trump began his second term, the US president has accused South Africa's government of racial discrimination against white Afrikaners, who led the country during apartheid.

Meyer, an Afrikaner, was a reformist minister in the last apartheid government and played a key role in the negotiations that brought about democracy in 1994. He formed a close rapport with Cyril Ramaphosa, now the president of South Africa, who was his opposite number in the African National Congress during the negotiations.

Meyer joined the ANC in 2006. According to Vincent Magwenya, Ramaphosa's spokesperson, Meyer will not be giving interviews until his credentials have been accepted by the US. Magwenya stated, "At this stage, until all administrative protocols have been completed in Washington it would be unwise for him to be speaking to the media now. I don’t have a sense of timelines, as it’s a state department process and we have no control over it."

South Africa has not had an ambassador in Washington since Rasool was expelled, accused by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, of being a "race-baiting politician who hates America". Rasool had previously stated that Trump's Make America Great Again movement was a "supremacist" response to demographic shifts in the US.

In a 2025 interview, Meyer said, "We have to work at restoring that relationship. I think it’s very important." He also acknowledged that South Africa may be to blame for not maintaining the relationship over time. Meyer criticized "Afrikaner groups that went [to Washington and] are not speaking on behalf of me as an Afrikaner, let alone the rest of the nation", saying their lobbying was "distorting the picture".

Expert Opinion

Prof John Stremlau, a US-Africa relations expert, called Meyer "the right person, at the right time". Stremlau stated that Meyer is "an excellent and experienced negotiator who not only negotiated in South Africa, but has brokered agreements elsewhere in various other places under very difficult circumstances". He added that Meyer needs to "stabilise the relationship" between South Africa and the US.