Who is Roelf Meyer, South Africa's new Ambassador to the US?

South Africa has appointed Roelf Meyer, a former minister and negotiator in the apartheid government, as its new ambassador to the United States in a move by President Cyril Ramaphosa to improve its strained relations with Washington.

The 78-year-old mayor replaces Ibrahim Rasool, who was expelled as South Africa's ambassador to the US in March last year after accusing Donald Trump of leading a global “white supremacist” movement. South Africa has since gone without diplomatic representation in Washington, DC.

The mayor is a member of the white Afrikaner community, which led the apartheid government in South Africa for decades. Trump has accused the South African government of racial discrimination against Africans.

So who is the mayor and will his appointment help improve relations between the two countries after a turbulent year?

Why have relations between America and South Africa deteriorated?

Relations between the US and South Africa have deteriorated since Trump came to power in January 2024.

The US President has criticized affirmative action policies meant to address inequalities that have persisted since the end of the apartheid era. Trump has falsely claimed that “white genocide” occurred in South Africa. His administration has offered expedited citizenship to white Africans to “avoid government-sponsored race-based discrimination.”

South Africa's move to file a genocide case against US ally Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has also angered Washington. In January, the US accused South Africa of “sympathizing with Iran” after Tehran was invited to attend. brix war game Off the coast of South Africa. Iranian naval vessels were asked to withdraw from the maneuvers, which also included China and Russia.

South Africa is a founding member of the BRICS grouping, which Trump views as an economic threat.

The BRICS exercise comes amid a buildup of US military assets in the Middle East. America and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, in which more than 2,000 people have been killed so far. The ceasefire was signed last week; Diplomatic efforts are ongoing to end the war.

Trump has also frozen foreign aid to South Africa over a land law, which Trump falsely claims targets white minorities. Billionaire Elon Musk, a close ally of Trump, has also accused the South African government of adopting biased, racially discriminatory policies towards white citizens.

Musk has spoken out against a South African law that requires at least 30 percent of a company's ownership or economic participation to be black South Africans to be eligible to operate.

“South African laws are literally super racist, plain and simple. It's not complicated: Imagine if the law was called “White Empowerment” instead of “Black Empowerment”! People would be upset,” he posted on his X platform on Wednesday.

“South Africa now has more anti-white laws than apartheid anti-black laws. Think about that for a second…”

The law is part of the government's affirmative action to help the black majority, who remain poor. White Africans, who make up about 8 percent of the population, own more than 70 percent of the country's land.

Why was Roelf Meyer appointed as the US Ambassador?

In a statement on Wednesday, the South African president described Mayer as “a very loyal and patriotic South African who has distinguished himself in many areas in which he has worked”.

Ramaphosa said, “I found him to be quite qualified to work in the United States, to recalibrate our relationship with the United States, and to be able to interface with multiple stakeholders.”

“As it stands right now, he is interacting with a number of people in the United States on Capitol Hill and in various departments of the United States.”

in one Interview Last July Mayer said South Africa needed to work to improve its relations with the US. He said that relations with America have been neglected in the last few years.

He has criticized Afrikaner groups who have promoted the idea that white farmers are racially targeted in the crimes. However, government statistics show that South Africa's high murder rate affects all races.

The mayor said the lobbying groups were “not speaking on my behalf as an African American, let alone the rest of the country”. He accused them of “distorting the picture”.

“As a white person of African descent in the United States he will push back against Donald Trump's frequent accusations of South Africa engaging in white genocide,” said Thembisa Phakude, a South Africa-based researcher at the Al Jazeera Center for Studies.

When Ramaphosa visited the White House in May last year, his entourage included two white South African golfers in an effort to allay Trump's concerns about his alleged oppression of white people.

However, analyst Fakude says South Africans are not interested in political ends to rectify “artificial” allegations.

Fakude said, “I don't think South Africans really have any interest in him (the mayor) addressing these allegations. Nobody talks about this in South Africa. It's ridiculous, and most Americans, of course, scoff at it.”

South Africans are looking at investment opportunities and how to grow the economy and create jobs.

“We need to see investment from the United States in this country. We need to see employment opportunities, and that should be the priority, and I think that's what he's going to prioritize,” Fakude said.

South African-US bilateral trade is worth $26 billion, and Washington is Pretoria's second largest trading partner after China.

Who is the mayor?

Meyer leads a global consultancy, In Transformation Initiative, where he has used his negotiation skills globally, engaging in peace initiatives in countries around the world and negotiating complex processes in South Africa.

In this regard, he has participated in peace processes in countries including Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Burundi, Kosovo and Bolivia. He was also involved in similar efforts in the Basque region and the Middle East.

Meyer, a lawyer by training, was the chief negotiator representing the country's white minority government during the negotiations that led to the end of the apartheid government in the early 1990s.

Ramaphosa, the African National Congress (ANC) leader who led the struggle against the apartheid system, was seated across from the mayor, representing the black majority.

The mayor is a former member of the National Party, which introduced apartheid in 1948. He held several key positions within the white minority government, including Deputy Minister of Law and Order and later Defense Minister.

Following the establishment of multiracial democracy in 1994, he was appointed Minister of Constitutional Development under President Nelson Mandela.

In 1997, Meyer co-founded the centre-left, social-democratic party, the United Democratic Movement, and was its vice-president until his resignation from active politics in 2000. He joined the African National Congress in 2006.

Meyer was born Roelof Petrus (Roelf) in 1947 in Port Elizabeth, on the southeast coast of the Eastern Cape province.

The mayor's appointment has not escaped criticism, with South Africa's opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), saying the move reflects the government's “dangerous” desire to appease the “white supremacist whims” of US President Donald Trump.

The EFF said Mayer's involvement in South Africa's transition process in the 1990s could not be used to “whitewash or erase” his past role in perpetuating apartheid.

“The Department of Law and Order was directly responsible for the police apparatus that enforced apartheid laws, crushed political opposition and maintained a regime based on fear and violence,” an EFF statement said.

Other critics say Mayer's age, 78, closes the door to younger, talented diplomats representing South Africa internationally.

“Age is a problem, not only in South Africa but around the world, that you take people who are older and you give them these responsibilities and ignore people who are under 80 to take it on,” Fakude said.

“When I say young people, I'm talking about people 50 and older who are not given the chance to participate.”