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Cyril Ramaphosa short biography
Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver the first Mandela Lecture on 19 June 2003 in Amsterdam.
Cyril Ramaphosa (50), as a sympathizer of Steve Biko, the murdered advocate of ‘black consciousness’, became involved with the student resistance movement based at the University of the North. As secretary general of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in the 1980s he adopted the principles of the ‘charter movement’, the African National Congress (ANC). In the mid-80’s Ramaphosa was one of the founders of the influential federation of trade unions, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
One year after the legalization of the ANC in 1990 Ramaphosa was elected secretary general of the party, a post which he held until 1996. After having played a leading role in the negotiations with the then white-minority government, Ramaphosa became the chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly. Hereby, Ramaphosa acquired, in the words of Nelson Mandela, the image of having been “the architect of the present-day South Africa”.
Since his departure from politics, Ramaphosa has made a transition to the business sector. Through his company Millennium Consolidated Investments he has penetrated a range of sectors in the South African economy. At the end of the 1990s he was elected chairperson of the Black Empowerment Economic (BEE) Commission, which is dedicated to increasing the influence of black entrepreneurs in the former white stronghold of the business sector.
Ramaphosa also acts as an advisor in the Northern Ireland peace process and is seen by many as the candidate to succeed the current South African president, Thabo Mbeki, at the end of his second term in office in 2009.
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