The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) rejects the appointment of Roelf Meyer as South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States of America by President Cyril Ramaphosa. This appointment is not only politically tone-deaf but is a deliberate insult to our democratic struggle.
Roelf Meyer’s history locates him as a central figure within the apartheid state, having risen through the ranks of the National Party, the political instrument that engineered and enforced racial oppression in South Africa. Meyer served as a Member of Parliament for the National Party from 1979, at a time when apartheid was at its most brutal, characterised by bannings, detentions without trial, violent repression of dissent, and the systemic exclusion of Black South Africans from political and economic life.
He went on to hold several key positions within the apartheid government, including Deputy Minister of Law and Order and later Minister of Defence. The Department of Law and Order was directly responsible for the police machinery that enforced apartheid laws, crushed political opposition, and maintained a regime built on fear and violence.
As Minister of Defence, Meyer was part of the political leadership overseeing the South African Defence Force (SADF), which was deeply implicated in cross-border destabilisation campaigns, regional wars, and internal repression. His involvement in the transition process in the 1990’s cannot be used to sanitise or erase his earlier role in upholding apartheid. It is important to recall that revolutionaries such as Chris Hani were never naïve about figures like Meyer. Hani consistently warned against romanticising members of the apartheid regime who suddenly rebranded themselves as democrats. He cautioned that individuals such as Roelf Meyer, along with other National Party operatives, had not fundamentally transformed their worldview, but were instead adapting in order to preserve white economic power under new political conditions.
It is therefore deeply offensive that the appointment of Roelf Meyer comes in the same period in which South Africa commemorates the assassination of Chris Hani. The EFF refuses to accept a situation where, in the shadow of Hani’s martyrdom, the democratic state elevates former apartheid functionaries into positions of international representation.
This contradiction exposes a government that has abandoned the revolutionary nature of our struggle and is now willing to rehabilitate those who once upheld oppression, in order to appease global powers.
At a time when the United States itself is grappling with entrenched racism and the resurgence of right-wing, white supremacist politics, South Africa should be asserting a bold, uncompromising anti-imperialist posture, not deploying individuals whose past aligns with systems of racial domination.
The EFF, therefore, firmly rejects the narrative that such an appointment represents “experience” or “stability.” Instead, it reflects a dangerous willingness by the current administration to appease Trump’s white supremacist whims by presenting a figure who is palatable to white power structures.
The EFF calls for the immediate withdrawal of this appointment, and for the selection of a representative who embodies the true revolutionary values of our country.
The EFF is known for its militant rhetoric and confrontational style in politics.
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