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Roelf Meyer, South African Ambassador: Trump has been misled

Roelf Meyer, South African Ambassador: Trump has been misled

The Interview vor 1 Monat

Roelf Meyer, South Africa’s new US ambassador, rejects Trump’s “white genocide” claim

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Ione Wells speaks to Roelf Meyer, South Africa’s new ambassador
to the United States. In the 1990s, Meyer was one of the leading
negotiators in the talks that helped bring apartheid to an end.

Now he takes up his new post amid a serious rupture in relations
with the US President Trump has cut aid, expelled the previous
South African ambassador and offered refugee status to white
Afrikaners he says are fleeing persecution, claiming the
community faces “genocide”.

The South African government rejects that allegation. Meyer,
himself an Afrikaner, explains why he believes Trump has been
given the wrong picture and how his experience negotiating the
end of apartheid could help repair relations with Washington.

“The notion of a mass attack on the Afrikaner was misrepresented
by those that might have conveyed the message. I mean, I’m an
Afrikaner from South Africa myself. And I can say that I’ve never
experienced something of that kind. We found it strange. So the
source is misrepresented, unfortunately, something that just
doesn’t exist,” says Meyer.

(Photo: Roelf Meyer, South Africa’s ambassador to the US, wears a
navy blazer with a white shirt and light blue tie. He has short
white hair. Credit: Getty Images) The Interview brings you
conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the
world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with
Sundar Pichai and Julia Gillard. You can listen on the BBC World
Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you
can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week
on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Ione
Wells Producer: Osman Iqbal Editor: Damon Rose