Cyril Ramaphosa was born in Johannesburg on November 17, 1952, as the second of three children. He grew up in Soweto where he attended primary and high school. He later went to Mphaphuli High School in Sibasa, Limpopo, were he was elected head of the Student Christian Movement soon after his arrival, attesting to his Christian beliefs.
He studied law at the then University of the North (Turfloop), where he became active in the South African Students Organization, which was aligned to black consciousness ideology espoused by Steve Biko. He became active in the University Student Christian Movement, which was steeped in the liberation black theology of the black consciousness movement.
After graduating with a degree in law, young Cyril Ramaphosa continued his political activism through the Black People’s Convention, for which he was jailed for six months. He went on to join the Council of Trade Unions of South Africa which was to form the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and became its first Secretary-General. He helped to build the NUM into the largest trade union in the country.
His prominence grew even more when he was elected Secretary-General of the ANC in 1991. He went on to play a key role during South Africa’s transition, becoming one of the key architects of the country’s constitutional democracy.
Under the auspices of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA, he became the ANC’s lead negotiator for a post-apartheid arrangement.
In 1994, Ramaphosa lost the contest to become the deputy to President Nelson Mandela. For the next two decades, he put his energies into building a large investment holding company Shanduka with interests in sectors ranging from mining to fast foods. During this 20-year period in business, Ramaphosa established deep links in the private sector in South Africa.
He made his major comeback onto the political scene at the ANC’s 2012 elective conference in Mangaung, Bloemfontein, where he was elected deputy president of the ANC, and later of the country. Although Ramaphosa had served in that role for five years, his influence has been described as minimal as he was not able to imprint his leadership on the party, or the country.
Following the dramatic ousting of President Jacob Zuma on February 14, 2018, parliament unanimously elected Ramaphosa as the interim President of South Africa till the elections billed for 2019. Now as President, he has begun to emphasize stability both in the government and the ANC and zero tolerance for corruption.
Ramaphosa is into his second marriage to Tshepo Motsepe, the sister of South African mining billionaire, Patrice Motsepe. Ramaphosa who has four children, is regarded to be one of the richest people in South Africa.
