By Johnathan Paoli
Newly appointed ambassador to the United States, Roelf Meyer, will be sent to Washington as soon as diplomatic processing is complete, Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told Inside Politics.
Asked when Meyer would be deployed, Magwenya said “immediately”, and then added: “[He will be deployed] as soon as possible once all administrative protocols in Washington have been completed.”
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Meyer will become South Africa’s first ambassador to the United States since former ambassador Ebrahim Rasool was declared persona non grata in March 2025.
Rasool was expelled after saying Trump was mobilising a “supremacist instinct” and projecting “white victimhood” as a “dog whistle”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the expulsion at the time, saying and Rasool was “no longer welcome” in America.
Meyer is one of the best-known political negotiators of South Africa’s democratic transition. He served as the National Party government’s chief negotiator during the talks to end apartheid and worked closely with then-ANC negotiator Cyril Ramaphosa.
After the 1994 election, Meyer served in Nelson Mandela’s cabinet and later co-founded the United Democratic Movement with Bantu Holomisa in 1997. He retired from frontline politics in 2000.
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Since leaving active politics, Meyer has remained involved in mediation and peacebuilding work, including international conflict-resolution efforts.
His appointment comes at a time of strained relations between Pretoria and Washington after Trump halted US aid to South Africa and backed a refugee programme for white Afrikaners, later expanding this to all racial minorities in South Africa.
Tensions between the two countries deepened further when the United States boycotted the 2025 G20 summit in Johannesburg. Trump later said South Africa would not receive an invitation to the 2026 summit in Miami.
