Roelf Meyer will replace the South African ambassador who was expelled from the United States by President Donald Trump in 2025.
Published April 15, 2026
South Africa has appointed Roelf Meyer, who helped negotiate an end to white minority rule in the country in the 1990s, as its next ambassador to the United States, according to local media.
Meyer’s appointment is seen as a sign that Pretoria is seeking to improve relations with Washington after a “tumultuous year”, according to the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
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South Africa has been without a diplomatic mission in Washington DC since March 2025, when US President Donald Trump expelled Ambassador Ebrahim Rasoul for criticizing the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
At the time, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio took to social media to denounce Rasul as a “racist politician” who hates America and Trump.
Rubio’s post linked to an article on Breitbart, a conservative U.S. news site, that reported on Rasul’s speech at a webinar hosted by a South African think tank. Rasool spoke from an academic perspective about the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity and equity, as well as immigration, and mentioned the possibility of a future America where whites are no longer the majority.
Last year, Trump also issued an executive order freezing most foreign aid to South Africa amid a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice over Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip and the passage of a controversial South African law aimed at closing historic racial disparities in land ownership.
Tensions then escalated further when Trump launched a refugee program for white South Africans who the US president says face government-sponsored persecution in their home country.
Meyer, 78, is a veteran negotiator with experience working under pressure. As a member of South Africa’s white Afrikaans minority, he once served as a minister under the apartheid National Party government.
He became famous during the final stages of apartheid in the 1990s, when his National Party held talks with the African National Congress (ANC) to end racial discrimination and white minority rule. This meeting paved the way for South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994.
As chief negotiator, Ralph became acquainted with current South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was then the ANC’s negotiator.
Meyer himself subsequently joined the ANC in 2006.
Ramaphosa’s office said he will assume his post as US ambassador once all protocols are completed in Washington, DC.
