South Africa has appointed Roelf Meyer, the 78-year-old former chief negotiator who helped dismantle white minority rule in the 1990s, as its next ambassador to the United States, signalling a calculated effort to repair a bilateral relationship that collapsed more than a year ago. The diplomatic post has remained vacant since March 2025, when former ambassador Ebrahim Rasool was expelled by US President Donald Trump after criticising the Make America Great Again movement. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office confirmed the appointment, with spokesperson Vincent Magwenya stating that Meyer would assume the role once all Washington protocols are completed.
Meyer, an Afrikaner who served as a minister under the apartheid National Party government before joining the African National Congress in 2006, brings a unique profile to the negotiations required to stabilise relations. He rose to prominence as the National Party’s chief negotiator during the talks that ended segregation, working alongside Ramaphosa, who at the time represented the ANC. Meyer later served in Nelson Mandela’s government of national unity and has been described by Ramaphosa as a figure committed to a non-racial South Africa. The appointment places a politician with deep historical credibility on both sides of the country’s racial divide at the centre of efforts to manage Washington’s increasingly hostile posture towards Pretoria.
The vacancy in Washington followed a series of escalating confrontations. Trump froze most foreign assistance to South Africa over its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and a land reform law aimed at correcting historic racial disparities. The US president also launched a refugee programme for white South Africans, claiming without evidence that they face state persecution. An earlier attempt to appoint former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas as special envoy failed when the US denied him a diplomatic visa over past remarks in which he called Trump a racist, a homophobe and a narcissistic right-winger. Meyer, by contrast, has maintained a reputation as a pragmatic negotiator who, despite his origins in the apartheid state, earned the trust of the liberation movement. The South African Broadcasting Corporation characterised the appointment as an attempt to navigate a turbulent year in bilateral relations.
The appointment also comes as the US deploys its own new envoy to Pretoria. Ambassador L. Brent Bozell III arrived in February 2026 and presented his credentials to Ramaphosa on 8 April. However, Bozell’s early tenure has been marked by controversy. The South African government issued a formal diplomatic protest after Bozell told a business meeting in Hermanus that he did not care what the courts say regarding the anti-apartheid chant Kill the Boer. The Constitutional Court has previously ruled that the chant does not constitute hate speech. Bozell later expressed regret for the remarks and reaffirmed US respect for the independence of South Africa’s judiciary. The episode underscored the fragility of the diplomatic reset that Meyer is now expected to manage.