South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Roelf Meyer, who served in the last government of the apartheid era, as his new ambassador to the US. The country has not had a top envoy in the US since Ebrahim Rasool was expelled last year after he accused President Donald Trump of trying to 'project white victimhood as a dog whistle.' This worsened already strained relations between the nations, which took a downward spiral after Trump's return to office last year. Ramaphosa's spokesperson Vincent Magwenya confirmed Meyer's appointment to the BBC, saying it would be 'immediate.' Meyer, 78, played a crucial role as one of the chief mediators during the talks to end apartheid in the 1990s. He represented the National Party, which introduced apartheid, while Ramaphosa represented the African National Congress (ANC) led by Nelson Mandela. The two eventually formed a lifelong friendship and Meyer was part of a group of 32 influential South Africans chosen by Ramaphosa last year to guide national dialogue addressing various challenges in the country. Meyer left the National Party to co-found the United Democratic Movement and later joined the ANC. However, his reformist stance led some right-wing Afrikaners to label him a traitor. His appointment comes as tensions between South Africa and the US continue to be influenced by perceptions of race and discourse surrounding refugees, particularly for Afrikaners, amidst claims made by Trump of a genocide against them, a assertion widely discredited. Ramaphosa has denounced these claims as 'completely false.'