80 Facts About Cyril Ramaphosa

Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa was born on 17 November 1952 and is a South African businessman and politician who is serving as the fifth democratically elected president of South Africa.

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

Cyril Ramaphosa 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, Cyril 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.

Cyril Ramaphosa 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.

Cyril Ramaphosa began his first full term as president in May 2019 following the ANC's victory in the 2019 general election.

Cyril Ramaphosa's estimated net worth was estimated at over R6.4 billion as of 2018.

Cyril Ramaphosa has been criticised for the conduct of his business interests, including his harsh posture as a Lonmin director towards the Marikana miners' strike in the week ahead of the Marikana massacre.

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

Cyril Ramaphosa is the second of the three children to Erdmuth and retired policeman Samuel Ramaphosa.

Cyril Ramaphosa attended Tshilidzi Primary School and Sekano Ntoane High School in Soweto.

Cyril Ramaphosa subsequently registered to study law at the University of the North in Limpopo Province in 1972.

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

Cyril 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.

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

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

Cyril 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.

Botha, Cyril Ramaphosa took a leading role in what became known as the Mass Democratic Movement.

Cyril Ramaphosa was elected Secretary-General of the ANC at the party's 48th National Conference in Durban in July 1991, and subsequently became head of the ANC's delegation to the negotiations that ended apartheid.

Cyril Ramaphosa was a visiting professor of law at Stanford University in October 1991.

Cyril Ramaphosa was re-elected, unopposed, as ANC Secretary-General at the party's 49th National Conference in December 1994.

Cyril Ramaphosa was a chairman of Bidvest, MTN, and from March 2007, Mondi, a leading international paper and packaging group.

In 2011, Cyril Ramaphosa paid for a 20-year master franchise agreement to run 145 McDonald's restaurants in South Africa.

Cyril Ramaphosa belonged to the Coca-Cola Company International Advisory Board and the Unilever Africa Advisory Council.

Cyril Ramaphosa became the first Vice Chairman of the Commonwealth Business Council, and, in 1998, the Chairman of South Africa's BEE Commission.

However, Kibaki's government protested Cyril Ramaphosa's involvement, saying that he had business links with Kibaki's opponent Raila Odinga.

Cyril Ramaphosa continued to accept nominations to the National Executive Committee of the ANC: at the 50th National Conference in 1997, he received the most votes of any candidate; and at the 51st National Conference in 2002, he received the second-most.

Cyril Ramaphosa made his return to political leadership in 2012, ahead of the ANC's 53rd National Conference, when he received nominations to become ANC Deputy President.

Alongside his duties as Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa was made Leader of Government Business in the National Assembly in terms of section 91 of the Constitution, a role which involved coordinating between Parliament and Zuma's cabinet.

In July 2014, Cyril Ramaphosa called for unity in the country after Julius Malema argued that the Afrikaans portion of the national anthem should be scrapped.

Cyril Ramaphosa said, "We are about building a nation and we must extend a hand of friendship, a hand of continued reconciliation to those who feel that the national anthem does not represent them any longer, and it can happen on both sides".

Late in Zuma's term, Cyril Ramaphosa began to address publicly the widespread allegations of corruption in Zuma's administration.

Cyril Ramaphosa continued to serve as Zuma's Special Envoy during the mediation in the South Sudanese conflict, and participated in the Southern African Development Community mediation in neighbouring Lesotho.

Cyril Ramaphosa stood for the ANC presidency in 2017, at the expiry of Zuma's term.

Cyril Ramaphosa was endorsed by Cosatu and the SACP; by the provincial leadership of the ANC's Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, and Gauteng provinces; and by politicians including education minister Angie Motshekga, former finance minister Pravin Gordhan, Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini, and former KwaZulu-Natal Premier Senzo Mchunu.

Cyril Ramaphosa subsequently spearheaded what he said was a campaign to "renew" the ANC internally and to restore its integrity and public image.

This, in turn, led to a confrontation with ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule, who, upon his suspension from the party in May 2021, attempted to retaliate by suspending Cyril Ramaphosa, accusing him of irregularities in the financing of the CR2017 campaign.

In December 2022, Cyril Ramaphosa was re-elected leader of the ANC, running against Zweli Mkhize, for a second five-year term.

Cyril Ramaphosa took his oath of office in the presidential guesthouse, Tuynhuys, by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.

Markets rallied strongly the day after Cyril Ramaphosa assumed the presidency with stocks rising and the rand reaching its firmest since early 2015.

On 16 February 2018, Cyril Ramaphosa gave his first State of the Nation Address as the president of South Africa, the first time in a democratic South Africa where the president delivered his State of the Nation Address without a deputy president.

Cyril Ramaphosa emphasised the need to grow the economy of South Africa, increase tourism and youth employment, as well as reduce the size of the Cabinet.

Cyril Ramaphosa's speech was met with mostly positive reviews from opposition parties saying that his speech was positive and that it would bring about change, but that they would hold him accountable.

On 26 February 2018, Cyril Ramaphosa, who had inherited Jacob Zuma's cabinet, reshuffled cabinet for the first time removing many of the cabinet members who had been controversial through the Zuma era and who had close links to the Gupta family.

Cyril Ramaphosa named the deputy president of the African National Congress and the Premier of Mpumalanga, David Mabuza, as the country's Deputy President.

Cyril Ramaphosa was elected unopposed to his first full term as president by the National Assembly on 22 May 2019.

At the 2020 AU summit, Cyril Ramaphosa expressed support for the African Continental Free Trade Area and described it as a major driver for reigniting industrialization and paving the way for Africa's integration into the global market.

Cyril Ramaphosa stated that the free trade agreement will make Africa a player of considerable weight and scale in the global market as well.

At the 2020 AU Summit, Cyril Ramaphosa expressed support for closing the gender gap and ending gender inequality.

Cyril Ramaphosa's government responded to the 2021 South African unrest, the deadliest riots since Apartheid.

Since Cyril Ramaphosa became president he has made land reform and the economy his main priorities, as well as dealing with the outbreak of listeriosis which has claimed the lives of over 100 since the start of 2018.

On 19 March 2018, Cyril Ramaphosa suspended Tom Moyane as the Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service after Moyane had refused to step down.

Cyril Ramaphosa has said that the state having the power to seize property for no compensation will encourage economic growth.

On 14 August 2018, Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Dr Silas Ramaite as the Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions following the ruling by the Constitutional Court that Director Shaun Abrahams had been appointed unlawfully by the former president, Jacob Zuma.

Cyril Ramaphosa launched the Youth Employment Service initiative as a means to employ one million youth and giving them more experience in the working field, with the South African Government even introducing the Employment Tax Incentive, which would reduce employer's costs when hiring youth.

On 14 August 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the launch of the Sanitation Appropriate For Education initiative in Pretoria to respond to the sanitary challenges facing the country's poorest schools.

Cyril Ramaphosa made his first international trip as President of South Africa to the Republic of Angola and met with President Joao Lourenco in his capacity as chairperson of the Southern African Development Community to talk about peace and defence.

Cyril Ramaphosa made his first international trip as the president of South Africa on 2 March 2018 to the Republic of Angola and met with President Joao Lourenco as the chair of the SADC.

On 20 March 2018, Cyril Ramaphosa made a trip to Kigali, Rwanda, along with Foreign Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, and met with President Paul Kagame and spoke about restoring relations between South Africa and Rwanda, later participating as panelists on the African Continental Free Trade Area Business Forum ahead of the 10th African Union Extraordinary Summit.

On 10 May 2021, Cyril Ramaphosa said that the ANC condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the potential evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem and the "brutal attacks on Palestinian protesters" at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Days later Cyril Ramaphosa announced his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts have agreed that a delegation of African heads of state could visit Moscow and Kyiv to present a peace plan.

In November 2022 Cyril Ramaphosa became the first foreign head of state to make a formal state visit to the United Kingdom during the reign of King Charles III.

Cyril Ramaphosa was made an honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath by Charles.

On 12 December 2021, Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele announced that Cyril Ramaphosa had tested positive for COVID-19, and deputy president, David Mabuza would take over "all responsibilities" for the following week.

Cyril Ramaphosa publicly declared in South Africa on 24 May 2018 that he would be donating half of his salary to charity in honour of late former South African president Nelson Mandela.

Cyril Ramaphosa said the gesture was aimed at encouraging the wealthy to dedicate some of their pay to help build the nation.

Under the investigation of Farlam committee, Cyril Ramaphosa said that Lonmin lobbied government and the SAPS firstly to secure a massive police presence at Lonmin and secondly to characterise what was taking place as a criminal rather than an industrial relations event.

Cyril Ramaphosa was employed on the board of directors of Lonmin while taking an active stance when the Marikana Massacre took place on Lonmin's Marikana premises.

Cyril Ramaphosa later admitted and regretted his involvement in the act and said that it could have been avoided if contingency plans had been made prior to the labour strike.

Cyril Ramaphosa denied the allegations, claiming that they were politically motivated aimed to derail his presidential campaign.

On 19 July 2019, the Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, released a report in which she claimed that Cyril Ramaphosa had intentionally misled the Parliament of South Africa over the controversial Bosasa donations to his CR17 ANC presidential campaign.

Cyril Ramaphosa briefed the nation on 21 July 2019 and described the report as "fundamentally flawed" and called for a judicial review of Mkhwebane's findings.

Cyril Ramaphosa has been criticised for the conduct of his business interests, although he has never been indicted for illegal activity in any of these controversies.

Controversial business dealings include his joint venture with Glencore and allegations of benefitting illegally from coal deals with Eskom which he has staunchly denied, during which Glencore was in the public spotlight for its tendentious business activities involving Tony Blair in the Middle East; his son, Andile Cyril Ramaphosa, has been found to have accepted payments totalling R2 million from Bosasa, the security company implicated in corruption and state capture by the Zondo Commission.

Cyril Ramaphosa received the Olof Palme Prize in Stockholm in October 1987.

Cyril Ramaphosa has frequently been listed as an influential individual: he was voted 34th in the 2004 list of Top 100 Great South Africans, and was included in the Time 100 in 2007 and 2019.

Cyril Ramaphosa has received honorary doctorates from, among others, the University of Natal, the University of Port Elizabeth, the University of Cape Town, the University of the North, the National University of Lesotho, National University of Ireland Galway, the University of Massachusetts Boston, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Cyril Ramaphosa was married from 1978 to 1989 to Hope Cyril Ramaphosa, with whom he has a son, and from 1991 to 1993 to the now deceased businesswoman Nomazizi Mtshotshisa.

Cyril Ramaphosa owns a luxury mansion at the foot of Lion's Head in Cape Town, as well as 30 other properties.

Cyril Ramaphosa is a polyglot, and is known for using a variety of South African languages when delivering his speeches.