About this site

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

Meyer, Roelf Petrus

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Roelf Meyer was born in Port Elizabeth in 1947. He attended the University of the Orange Free State where he completed his BCom and LLB degrees.

He was Minister of Defence and of Constitutional Affairs before and during the South African transition from apartheid to democracy. He was chief negotiator for the National Party Government (NP) during the negotiations that led to the settlement of the South African conflict. It was in this capacity that he negotiated the end of apartheid together with Cyril Ramaphosa, who was the chief negotiator of the African National Congress (ANC). These negotiations resulted in the first democratic election in South Africa at the end of April 1994. After this election Meyer continued in the same portfolio of Constitutional Affairs in the Cabinet of former President Nelson Mandela.

Meyer retired from active politics at the beginning of the year 2000 and he is currently a business person and active in civil society. His negotiating skills and experience in the field of conflict resolution have led to several international appointments, inter alia: -

Ø. A member of the Strategy Committee of the Project on Justice in Times of Transition at Harvard University;

Ø. The 2001 holder of the Tip O'Neill Chair in peace studies at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland;

Ø. Involvement in the peace processes in a number of countries, including Northern Ireland, Middle East, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Burundi, Kosovo.

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. Return to theThis resource is hosted by the site.