South Africa appoints ex-apartheid-era minister as US envoy

Roelf Meyer’s appointment followed the expulsion of Ebrahim Rasool by Washington last year for criticizing the Trump administration

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed veteran politician Roelf Meyer as the country’s next ambassador to the US, more than a year after Washington expelled former envoy Ebrahim Rasool.

Ramaphosa’s spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, confirmed the appointment to Reuters on Tuesday. Meyer, 78, is best known as the National Party’s chief negotiator in the talks that helped end South Africa’s apartheid system in 1994.

Meyer, who is Afrikaner, entered parliament in 1979 during the apartheid era and later held senior cabinet posts under the white minority government. He served in the administrations of Pieter Botha and Frederik de Klerk, including as defense minister and later as minister of constitutional affairs, before emerging as one of the central figures in the transition to majority rule.

South Africa’s presidency has described Meyer as a key figure in the creation of the country’s constitutional democracy and “a true citizen committed to a non-racial South Africa.”

READ MORE: US expels South African ambassador

Africa’s most industrialized nation has not had an ambassador to the US since Rasool was declared persona non grata after he criticized the Trump administration’s MAGA movement during a webinar in March 2025.

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He said US President Donald Trump was launching an assault on those in power both “at home and… abroad.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio later announced his expulsion, saying Rasool was “no longer welcome” and calling him a “race-baiting politician.”

The diplomatic rift came amid a broader deterioration in relations between Pretoria and Washington. Trump has frozen financial aid and imposed a 30% tariff on South African imports amid a dispute over Pretoria’s foreign policy and domestic laws, including its land expropriation legislation, which he says discriminates against white South Africans.

South Africa has also faced US pressure to withdraw its case against Israel at the International Court of Justice over the war in Gaza. Pretoria has rejected the demands.

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The new US ambassador, Leo Brent Bozell III, who arrived in South Africa in February, has also questioned the country’s policies, and outlined five issues he said will need to be resolved for relations between Pretoria and Washington to improve.

Last month, Bozell was summoned by Pretoria over “undiplomatic remarks,” following his criticism of a South African court ruling that found the anti-apartheid chant ‘Kill the Boer’ was not hate speech.