Cyril Ramaphosa
*Cyril Ramaphosa was born on this date in 1952. He is a Black South African businessman and politician.
Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa was born in Soweto, Johannesburg, to Venda parents. He is the second of the three children of Erdmuth and retired policeman Samuel Ramaphosa. He attended Tshilidzi Primary School and Sekano Ntoane High School in Soweto. In 1971, he matriculated from Mphaphuli High School in Sibasa, Venda, where he was elected head of the Student Christian Movement.
He registered to study law at the University of the North (Turfloop) in northern Transvaal Province in 1972. While at university, Ramaphosa became involved in student politics and joined the South African Students' Organization (SASO) and the Black People's Convention (BPC). This resulted in him being detained in solitary confinement for eleven months in 1974 under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act, 1967, for organizing pro-Frelimo rallies. In 1976, he was detained again, following the unrest in Soweto, and held for six months at John Vorster Square under the Terrorism Act. After his release, he became a law clerk for a Johannesburg firm of attorneys. He continued with his legal studies through correspondence with the University of South Africa (UNISA), where he obtained his Bachelor of Procurations degree in 1981.
Ramaphosa rose to national prominence as secretary-general of South Africa's largest and most powerful trade union, the National Union of Mineworkers. In 1991, he was elected ANC secretary general under ANC president Nelson Mandela and became the ANC's chief negotiator during the negotiations that ended apartheid. He was elected chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly after the country's first fully democratic elections in 1994, and some observers believed that he was Mandela's preferred successor. However, Ramaphosa resigned from politics in 1996 and became well known as a businessman, including as an owner of McDonald's South Africa, chair of the board for MTN, member of the board for Lonmin, and founder of the Shanduka Group.
Ramaphosa returned to politics in December 2012 and served as the deputy president of South Africa under President Jacob Zuma from 2014 to 2018. He was also chairman of the National Planning Commission. At the ANC's 54th National Conference on December 18, 2017, he was elected president of the ANC. Two months later, the day after Zuma resigned in February 2018, the National Assembly (NA) elected Ramaphosa as president of South Africa. He began his first full term as president in May 2019 following the ANC's victory in the 2019 general election.
While president, Ramaphosa served as chairperson of the African Union from 2020 to 2021 and led South Africa's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ramaphosa's net worth was estimated at over R6.4 billion ($450 million) as of 2018. He has been criticized for his conduct and involvement in his business interests, including his harsh posture as a Lonmin director towards the Marikana miners' strike in the week before the Marikana massacre. In December 2022, it was announced that the ANC's 55th National Conference had elected Ramaphosa to a second term as president of the African National Congress (ANC). In June 2024, the National Assembly of South Africa elected Ramaphosa to a second term as president of South Africa after the ANC lost its majority in the general election.
