President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Roelf Meyer, who served as constitutional affairs minister in the last government of the apartheid era, as South Africa’s ambassador to the United States.

Mr Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya confirmed Mr Meyer’s appointment on Wednesday. 

Mr Meyer, 78, was among 32 prominent South Africans chosen last year by Mr Ramaphosa to guide the national dialogue aimed at addressing the country’s challenges.

As a minister in the last apartheid government, Mr Meyer and Mr Ramaphosa alongside several others were mediators during the talks to end the racist system of white-minority rule (apartheid) in South Africa in the 1990s.

Mr Meyer, a white Afrikaner, was the chief representative of the National Party (NP) which introduced the apartheid government, while Mr Ramaphosa represented the African National Congress (ANC) led by late Nelson Mandela who fought against the apartheid government. 

Due to his role in the peace talks that led to the end of apartheid, right-wing Afrikaners considered Mr Meyer a reformist and traitor within the NP. The Afrikaners are majorly white descendants of early European settlers in South Africa. 

Mr Meyer later joined the government of national unity formed in 1994 when Mr Mandela became president. But he left after two years to co-found the United Democratic Movement, and later joined the ANC. 

While the ANC welcomed Mr Meyer’s appointment, the Economic Freedom Fighters partyb(EFF) led by Julius Malema, a former ANC member and national youth leader, condemned the appointment.

Mr Malema described Mr Meyer’s appointment as “politically tone deaf” and a “deliberate insult to our democratic struggle.”

Right-wing Afrikaner groups, AfriForum and Solidarity Movement, also condemned Mr Meyer’s appointment. 

AfriForum leader Kallie Kriel, in a post on X, referred to Mr Meyer as an “ANC cadre” whose “history shows that he is someone who is willing to dramatically reposition himself to suit his own personal interests.”

However, Mr Ramaphosa defended the appointment, saying that Mr Meyer would “represent South Africa very well” and that he is “well attuned with the policies of this country.” 

South Africa has not had an ambassador to the U.S. since Ebrahim Rasool was expelled in 2025 after he accused President Donald Trump of trying to “project white victimhood as a dog whistle.”