South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed veteran negotiator Roelf Meyer as the country’s new ambassador to the United States, a move aimed at stabilising relations that have deteriorated sharply over the past year.
Presidential Spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya confirmed the appointment, saying Meyer will assume duties once formal protocols in Washington are completed.
South Africa has not had an ambassador in Washington since early last year, when the Trump administration expelled Ebrahim Rasool after he criticised the Make America Great Again movement.
The expulsion deepened already tense relations, which had been strained by disputes over South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the UN and by President Donald Trump’s repeated claims – widely discredited – that white Afrikaners are victims of “genocide” in South Africa.
President Ramaphosa’s attempt to appoint former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas as special envoy last year collapsed when the US denied him a diplomatic visa, citing past remarks in which he reportedly called Trump a “racist” and a “narcissistic right‑winger.”
With the post vacant for nearly a year, pressure mounted on Pretoria to find a candidate acceptable to Washington.
Meyer, 78, is regarded as one of the key architects of South Africa’s democratic transition.
As the National Party’s chief negotiator in the early 1990s, he worked alongside Ramaphosa to dismantle apartheid and usher in the country’s first democratic elections.
He later served in Nelson Mandela’s government of national unity before leaving the NP and eventually joining the ANC.
His appointment has been widely interpreted as an attempt to reset relations with Washington.
The US recently installed its own new envoy, Brent Bozell, a conservative activist and staunch Trump ally, signalling that both sides are now moving to restore formal diplomatic channels.
AP