Veteran political negotiator Roelf Meyer named as next US ambassador

Dr John Kani,Roelf Meyer and Lindiwe Mazibuko at the first National Dialogue meeting at the Union Buildings in July.

Gallo Images/Beeld/Deaan Vivier

Veteran political negotiator Roelf Meyer has been appointed South Africa’s new ambassador to the US,the Presidency has confirmed to News24.

Meyer,78,replaces Ebrahim Rasool after more than a year of strained relations that followed Donald Trump’s return to the White House in 2025,with tensions fuelled by his claims that South Africa is persecuting white farmers and seizing land,as well as granting refugee status to Afrikaners.

A former apartheid-era constitutional affairs minister,Meyer is widely regarded as a key architect of South Africa’s democratic transition and now serves as a director of the In Transformation Initiative,which promotes democratic transitions and conflict resolution.

The fallout between the USA and South Africa has spilt into global forums,with Trump reportedly seeking to block South Africa’s participation in the G20 summit in Miami,and President Cyril Ramaphosa was disinvited from the G7 in France after Trump objected to his presence.

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Rasool was declared persona non grata in March last year after suggesting a “supremacist instinct” in US politics,prompting Ramaphosa to delay naming a successor.

News24 reported last week that Ramaphosa had accepted the credentials of new US envoy Leo Brent Bozell.