Cyril Ramaphosa

Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa (born 17 November 1952) is a South African businessman and politician serving as the fifth and current president of South Africa since 2018.

A former anti-apartheid activist, trade union leader, and businessman, Ramaphosa is also the president of the African National Congress (ANC).

Ramaphosa rose to national prominence as secretary general of South Africa's biggest and most powerful trade union, the National Union of Mineworkers.

Ramaphosa was born in Soweto, Johannesburg, on 17 November 1952, to Venda parents.

He is the second of the three children to 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 subsequently registered to study law at the University of the North (Turfloop) in Limpopo Province in 1972.

While at university, Ramaphosa became involved in student politics and joined the South African Students Organisation (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 organising 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 and continued with his legal studies through correspondence with the University of South Africa (UNISA), where he obtained his Bachelor of Procurationis degree (B. Proc.) in 1981.

After completing his legal qualifications and obtaining his degree, Ramaphosa joined the Council of Unions of South Africa (CUSA) as an advisor in the legal department.

In 1982, CUSA requested that Ramaphosa start a union for mineworkers; this new union was launched in the same year and was named the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

Ramaphosa was arrested in Lebowa, on the charge of organising or planning to take part in a meeting in Namakgale which had been banned by the local magistrate.

In August 1982, CUSA resolved to form the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and in December Ramaphosa became its first secretary.

Ramaphosa was the conference organiser in the preparations leading to the formation of the Congress of the South African Trade Union (COSATU).

Under his leadership, union membership grew from 6,000 in 1982 to 300,000 in 1992, giving it control of nearly half of the total black workforce in the South African mining industry.

As general secretary, he, James Motlatsi (president of NUM), and Elijah Barayi (vice-president of NUM) also led the mineworkers in one of the biggest strikes ever in South African history.

He delivered a keynote address at Cosatu's launch rally in Durban in December 1985.

In 1985, the NUM broke away from CUSA and helped to establish the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).

When COSATU joined forces with the United Democratic Front (UDF) political movement against the National Party government of P. W. Botha, Ramaphosa took a leading role in what became known as the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM).

Ramaphosa has claimed that he is a committed socialist.

In March 1986, he was part of COSATU's delegation which met the African National Congress in Lusaka, Zambia.

In December 1988, Ramaphosa and other prominent members of the Soweto community met Soweto's mayor to discuss the rent boycott crisis.

After the ANC was unbanned in early 1990, Ramaphosa became increasingly close with the organisation.

In January 1990, he accompanied released ANC political prisoners to the ANC headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia; and, later, that year, he served as chairman of the National Reception Committee, which coordinated arrangements for Nelson Mandela's release from prison, including concomitant celebratory rallies.

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.

Ramaphosa was elected as the first general secretary of the union, a position he held until he resigned in June 1991, following his election as secretary-general of the African National Congress (ANC).

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.

He returned to politics in December 2012 at the ANC's 53rd National Conference 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 18 December 2017, he was elected president of the ANC.

Two months later, the day after Zuma resigned on 14 February 2018, the National Assembly (NA) elected Ramaphosa as president of South Africa.

Ramaphosa's net worth was estimated at over R6.4 billion ($450 million) as of 2018.

He has been criticised 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 ahead of the Marikana massacre.

On 19 December 2022, it was announced that the ANC's 55th National Conference had elected Ramaphosa to a second term as president of the ANC.

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.