{"id":32007,"date":"2026-04-15T17:22:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T15:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=32007"},"modified":"2026-04-15T17:22:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T15:22:48","slug":"sa-president-backs-roelf-meyers-appointment-as-us-ambassador","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-president-backs-roelf-meyers-appointment-as-us-ambassador\/","title":{"rendered":"SA President backs Roelf Meyer\u2019s appointment as US Ambassador"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">South Africa\u2019s (SA) President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended the appointment of Roelf Meyer as SA\u2019s next Ambassador to the United States (US), saying he is more than qualified to take on the role.<\/span><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Meyer\u2019s appointment comes after the post remained vacant since March 2025, following the expulsion of former Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Rasool was declared persona non grata after publicly criticising the administration of US President Donald Trump. \u00a0Meyer will still need to formally submit his credentials to the US authorities before assuming his duties.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>He has expressed hope that the process will proceed smoothly, as he prepares to represent SA \u00a0and continues flying the country\u2019s flag on the international stage.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cMeyer was a cabinet minister and has done very well in those areas. Recently he\u2019s been involved in mediation processes in a number of countries and that in many ways has sharpened his diplomatic skills where he has been able to get involved either in conflict situations trying to bring peace amongst differing warring parties at a very quiet level. He is continuing to assist even our government in these different diplomatic efforts and when we needed to appoint an ambassador in the US, I found him to be more than qualified to be able to work in the US, recalibrate our relationship with the US, interface with a number of stakeholders.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u2014SABC\u2014<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15178,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-32007","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Meyer\u2019s appointment comes after the post remained vacant since March 2025.","published_date":"","news_description":"Meyer\u2019s appointment comes after the post remained vacant since March 2025.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32008,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32007\/revisions\/32008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=32007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}