President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Roelf Meyer, a former apartheid-era politician and negotiator who played a central role in ending white minority rule, as South Africa’s new ambassador to the U.S., according to official statements. Meyer will replace Ebrahim Rasool, who was expelled from Washington in 2025, leaving the post vacant for over a year.
The appointment comes as South Africa seeks to stabilise strained relations with the U.S. under President Donald Trump. Diplomatic tensions escalated following Rasool’s expulsion after comments critical of the Make America Great Again movement. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously described Rasool as a “race-baiting politician”, while Rasool had referred to Trump supporters as “supremacists”, according to reports.
Relations between Pretoria and Washington have further deteriorated over disputes including South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, U.S. aid restrictions, tariffs on South African exports, and Washington’s refugee programme offering resettlement to white Afrikaners.
Meyer, 78, served as a minister in the apartheid-era National Party government and later became one of the chief negotiators in talks with the African National Congress that led to South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. He later worked in the post-apartheid government of national unity and collaborated closely with Ramaphosa during the transition period. The two men have maintained a long-standing working relationship spanning decades since the early 1990s, when they were key figures in the negotiations that helped end apartheid.
Reactions in South Africa have been mixed, with supporters citing Meyer’s experience in conflict resolution, while critics question his age and past political affiliations. Analysts have described the appointment as a strategic move aimed at resetting ties with Washington.
