ANTHONY BUTLER | Ramaphosa’s trust in Meyer faces Washington test

The ‘tale of the trout hook’ underscores the trust needed for SA’s diplomatic reset

First published in Business Day and BusinessLive

April 17, 2026

Astute political observers have picked up on the fact that Roelf Meyer, South Africa’s ambassador-designate to the US, is white. However, the significance of this truth remains unclear.

After all, President Cyril Ramaphosa brought white South Africans with him to the abortive relationship reset with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last May. Remgro chair Johann Rupert, professional golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen and minister of foot-in-mouth disease John Steenhuisen together presented a dazzling display of happy white faces, but did nothing to avert Trump’s “white genocide” ambush.

Meyer has characteristics other than his race. Despite his advancing years he still radiates the simple rural values and honesty of the boereseun. The most taxing part of the constitutional negotiations in which he worked closely with Ramaphosa was managing his own people’s expectations. He took the blame for concessions that simply could not be avoided, becoming a scapegoat for conservative Afrikaners.

He partly shielded his political principal, FW De Klerk, from the flak. Like Ramaphosa, who performed the same service for Nelson Mandela, he was quickly sidelined once the negotiations were over.

Meyer had deep previous experience in the government. Hardline president PW Botha had appointed him to the pivotal position of deputy minister of law & order in 1986, with responsibility for the national security management system, co-ordinating intelligence, police and private agencies at a time of significant public unrest. He no doubt still possesses the skills that will be needed to fashion a real diplomatic presence.

Meyer also reportedly demonstrates interpersonal sensitivity in interactions with a wide range of rather difficult interlocutors, from hardline Afrikaners to Northern Irish Protestants and even the occasionally awkward Bantu

Holomisa, with whom he co-created a political party.

Nothing captures Meyer’s political style better than the role assigned to him in the famous August 1991 “tale of the trout hook”, reported with sensational skill and imagination by journalist Allister Sparks in his book Tomorrow Is Another Country.

Early in the transition negotiations Meyer and his family travelled by helicopter to Havelock Trout Farm in the then Transvaal at the invitation of businessman Sidney Frankel, who thought he and Ramaphosa should get to know each other better. The Meyer children asked if they could try fly-fishing. Meyer had no knowledge of the sport, but Ramaphosa volunteered to teach them. When Meyer tried to cast a hook it became deeply embedded in one of his fingers. Despite the valiant efforts of Ramaphosa’s second wife, who had trained as a nurse, they could not remove it.

According to Sparks, Ramaphosa uttered the famous words: “Roelf, there’s only one way to do this”, got out some pliers, handed Meyer a bottle of whisky to slug, and said: “If you’ve never trusted an ANC person before, you’d better get ready to do so now!” Ramaphosa then wrenched the hook from Meyer’s finger with a single pull. Many months later when the negotiations were in danger of collapsing, Ramaphosa supposedly turned to Meyer and said, “trust me”. With the memory of the fishhook fresh in his memory Meyer was able to trust him, and the negotiations restarted.

The tale is a carefully curated interpretation of ostensible events. It presents Meyer in an unexpected light. Ramaphosa, not he, is the skilled and experienced fly-fisherman. It is Ramaphosa who saves the day with his decisive action. Meyer is presented as vulnerable, vaguely inept, but willing to learn the lessons experience can teach.

To get a hearing in today’s Washington will take more than just effective organisation and a firm grasp of the facts. Ambassador Meyer might just have the human skills, aura of humility and creative imagination to do the job.

Butler teaches public policy at the University of Cape Town