JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed veteran politician Roelf Meyer as the country's ambassador to the United States in a move widely seen as an effort to ease diplomatic tensions between the two nations.
Meyer was minister of defense from 1991 to 1992 under the white minority government of former President F.W. De Klerk’s National Party. He later was a chief negotiator in the negotiations that brought an end to apartheid and led to the election of Nelson Mandela as the country’s first Black and democratically elected leader in 1994. Meyer served in Mandela’s cabinet as constitutional development minister from 1994 to 1996.
Meyer's appointment comes during a period of strained relations between South Africa and U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, which expelled former Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool following his criticism of Trump.
The fallout put pressure on Ramaphosa to appoint an ambassador who would be acceptable to the Trump administration while relations remain tense.
Trump has targeted South Africa and cut all financial assistance after accusing the government of allowing a “white genocide” against the white Afrikaner minority group, claiming they were being racially targeted and killed. Trump implemented a program offering migration and asylum to white Afrikaners who feel persecuted in South Africa.
“I can confirm that President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Mr Roelf Meyer as South Africa’s Ambassador to the US,” Ramaphosa's spokesman Vincent Magwenya said in a message to The Associated Press.
The appointment of Meyer, himself an Afrikaner, comes a week after Ramaphosa accepted Leo Brent Bozell III as the new U.S. ambassador to South Africa.
Bozell, a conservative activist appointed by Trump, started on a tense footing after he was summoned by South Africa's foreign ministry in March. Speaking at a meeting of business leaders, Bozell challenged the South African government over its diplomatic ties with Iran and affirmative action laws that he said advance opportunities for Black people ahead of other races.
Professor John Stremlau, a U.S.-Africa relations expert at the University of the Witwatersrand, called Meyer “the right person, at the right time.”
“He 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," Stremlau said, adding that Meyer needs to “stabilize the relationship” between the nations.
“But it will be difficult for him because Trump’s executive orders last year laid out a racist agenda against South Africa’s Black majority, cutting all financial assistance to them and offering refugee status to Afrikaners,” Stremlau said.
The two nations also are at odds over South Africa's decision to pursue an International Court of Justice case accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Trump boycotted the G20 Leaders Summit hosted by South Africa in 2025 and has not invited South Africa to the G20 meetings being hosted by the U.S. in Miami in December.
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