South Africa appoints former apartheid-era negotiator as US ambassador

Roelf Meyer will replace the South African ambassador who was expelled from the US by President Donald Trump in 2025.South Africa has appointed Roelf Meyer, who helped negotiate the end of white minority rule in his country in the 1990s, as the next ambassador to the United States, according to local media.Meyer’s appointment is seen as a sign that Pretoria is aiming to improve its relations with Washington following a “turbulent year”, according to the South African Broadcasting Corporation.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4French police arrest students protesting anti-Semitism lawlist 2 of 4Haiti’s Culture Ministry fires workers over citadel stampede that killed 25list 3 of 4Israeli attacks kill 11, including two children, in day of strikes on Gazalist 4 of 4Israel and Lebanon hold direct talks for first time in decadesend of listSouth Africa has gone without diplomatic representation in Washington, DC, since March 2025, when US President Donald Trump expelled Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool for his criticism of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.Posting on social media at the time, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Rasool of being a “race-baiting politician” who hates the US and Trump.Rubio’s post linked to a story by US conservative news site Breitbart that reported on a talk Rasool gave on a webinar organised by a South African think tank. Rasool had spoken in academic terms of the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity and equity programmes, as well as immigration, and mentioned the possibility of a future US where white people would no longer be in the majority.South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, centre left, and former minister and constitutional negotiator Roelf Meyer, centre right, during the first National Convention at the University of South Africa, Pretoria, in August 2025 [File: Phill Magakoe/AFP]Trump last year also issued an executive order freezing most foreign assistance to South Africa amid the country’s legal action at the International Court of Justice over Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the passage of a controversial South African law aimed at correcting historic racial disparities in land ownership.