This is a nice article introducing South Africa’s new ambassador to the United States and his agenda for fixing the very strained relationship between the U.S. and S.A.
Roelf Meyer is an Afrikaner who served in the National Party during Apartheid. Like some other Afrikaners, he accepted that Apartheid was morally wrong and unsustainable and that it was time to end. He acted as a negotiator for the National Party during the talks to end Apartheid and establish a constitutional democracy. He was the opposite number to the ANC’s Cyril Ramaphosa, and this is where they became friends and established a working relationship.
After the beginning of democracy in SA, he formed a multi-racial political party called the UDM, which initially challenged the ANC in its stronghold province of Eastern Cape, but he later left the party. In 2004 he joined Thabo Mbeki’s ANC but then later left when Zuma came to power.
Meyer’s priority is to mend the relationship with the U.S. and facilitate investment from American companies in South Africa in order to create jobs. The U.S. has ‘five asks’ from the South African government:
>(i) prioritise the protection of rural communities from violence; (ii) condemn the notorious Kill the Boer chant as hate speech; (iii) scrap the expropriation without compensation law; (iv) end the requirement that foreign investors must surrender ownership of 30% of their businesses to black South Africans under broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) laws; (v) and demonstrate that it is really non-aligned globally, as it claims to be, by distancing itself from US enemies such as Iran.
Meyer has indicated that he thinks both sides can find each other on many of these issues.
He has also expressed a desire to end President Trump’s Afrikaner refugee programme:
>One reason he wanted to see Trump’s executive order lifted was that doing so would end the Afrikaner refugee programme, “because for me, as an Afrikaner myself, I find it embarrassing that the tribe that I belong to are regarded as refugees”.
He also expressed that the executive order has to go because until it does it can be used to justify tariffs, trade restrictions and other punitive measures about South Africa.
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This is a nice article introducing South Africa’s new ambassador to the United States and his agenda for fixing the very strained relationship between the U.S. and S.A.
Roelf Meyer is an Afrikaner who served in the National Party during Apartheid. Like some other Afrikaners, he accepted that Apartheid was morally wrong and unsustainable and that it was time to end. He acted as a negotiator for the National Party during the talks to end Apartheid and establish a constitutional democracy. He was the opposite number to the ANC’s Cyril Ramaphosa, and this is where they became friends and established a working relationship.
After the beginning of democracy in SA, he formed a multi-racial political party called the UDM, which initially challenged the ANC in its stronghold province of Eastern Cape, but he later left the party. In 2004 he joined Thabo Mbeki’s ANC but then later left when Zuma came to power.
Meyer’s priority is to mend the relationship with the U.S. and facilitate investment from American companies in South Africa in order to create jobs. The U.S. has ‘five asks’ from the South African government:
>(i) prioritise the protection of rural communities from violence; (ii) condemn the notorious Kill the Boer chant as hate speech; (iii) scrap the expropriation without compensation law; (iv) end the requirement that foreign investors must surrender ownership of 30% of their businesses to black South Africans under broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) laws; (v) and demonstrate that it is really non-aligned globally, as it claims to be, by distancing itself from US enemies such as Iran.
Meyer has indicated that he thinks both sides can find each other on many of these issues.
He has also expressed a desire to end President Trump’s Afrikaner refugee programme:
>One reason he wanted to see Trump’s executive order lifted was that doing so would end the Afrikaner refugee programme, “because for me, as an Afrikaner myself, I find it embarrassing that the tribe that I belong to are regarded as refugees”.
He also expressed that the executive order has to go because until it does it can be used to justify tariffs, trade restrictions and other punitive measures about South Africa.
Supplementary articles:
[https://www.ewn.co.za/roelf-meyer-reflects-on-apartheid-democracy-and-his-surprise-return-to-public-service-as-us-ambassador/](https://www.ewn.co.za/roelf-meyer-reflects-on-apartheid-democracy-and-his-surprise-return-to-public-service-as-us-ambassador/)
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-25/south-africa-envoy-to-us-will-prioritize-mending-ties-with-trump](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-25/south-africa-envoy-to-us-will-prioritize-mending-ties-with-trump)