The EFF has registered its dissent with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s pick for SA ambassador to the US, calling for the withdrawal of Roelf Meyer.
The EFF believes that this appointment is not only politically tone-deaf but tantamount to a deliberate “insult” to the country’s democratic struggle.
EFF national spokesperson Sinawo Thambo criticised Meyer’s role in the oppressive apartheid regime.
“Meyer’s history locates him as a central figure within the apartheid state, having risen through the ranks of the National Party [NP], the political instrument that engineered and enforced racial oppression in South Africa,” he said.
Meyer served as a member of parliament for the NP from 1979 at the height of the apartheid era.
Thambo described this time as one that was 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.
Meyer went on to hold several key positions within the apartheid government, including deputy minister of law and order and later minister of defence.
The EFF pointed fingers at the then department of law and order as being directly involved and responsible for 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 1990s cannot be used to sanitise or erase his earlier role in upholding apartheid,” he added.
The red berets reflected on some of the perceptions that struggle heroes and revolutionaries such as Chris Hani had 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 NP operatives, had not fundamentally transformed their worldview, but were instead adapting in order to preserve white economic power under new political conditions.”
Thambo stated that it was deeply offensive that Meyer’s appointment comes in the same period in which SA 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.”
The EFF said it was wrong to deploy individuals whose past aligned with systems of racial domination.
“At a time where the US is reportedly grappling with entrenched racism and the resurgence of right-wing, white supremacist politics, the red berets insist that South Africa should be asserting a bold, uncompromising anti-imperialist posture.”
The party poured cold water over 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.”
Meyer was a protagonist in the transition to democracy, as a chief negotiator for the NP government during the negotiations to end apartheid.
In 1994, then president Nelson Mandela appointed him as minister of constitutional development and provincial affairs in the multi-party government of national unity.
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