Nine interesting things to know about Cyril Ramaphosa’s wife

Even though he has been South Africa’s head of state for four years, not much is known about President Cyril Ramaphosa and his family, especially his wife, Tshepo Motsepe, South Africa’s first lady. 

With the State of the Nation Address (Sona) only hours away, South Africans are getting increasingly inquisitive about the president’s private life. 

ALSO READ: Will Ramaphosa meet deadline to answer questions over leaked audio ahead of Sona?

We look at some interesting things you might not have known about President Cyril Ramaphosa’s wife: 

Background

Tshepo Motsepe was born in Soweto and raised in the rural villages of Mathibestad near Hammanskraal and her ancestral home, Mmakau, in the North West province.

While not much is known about how Ramaphosa met his third wife, we know that the couple got married in 1996 and have been happily married ever since, despite the fact that he admitted to having an affair in 2017. They have four children together.

Tshepo Motsepe is not only the First Lady of South Africa, she is also the daughter of the late Chief Augustine Butana Chaane Motsepe, who was a mining magnate and former Mamelodi Sundowns owner.

Her brother is Patrice Motsepe, also a mining magnate, who has been serving as the President of the Confederation of African Football since March 2021. He is also the founder and executive chairman of African Rainbow Minerals and sits on several company boards. Patrice also owns soccer club Mamelodi Sundowns, and was named South Africa’s richest man in 2012.

Tshepo’s sister, Bridgette Radebe, is married to Jeff Radebe who was appointed as Minister of Energy by Ramaphosa in February 2018. Before that he was Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development from 2009 to 2014. He was part of every national administration from 1994 until the 2019 election.

Careers

Tshepo Motsepe studied to become a medical doctor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and completed her Master of Public Health in Maternal Child Health and Aging at Harvard School of Public Health. She also holds a Social Entrepreneurship Programme certificate from the Gordon Institute of Business Science.

Motsepe has worked in both private and public hospitals in South Africa and Zimbabwe. She has served as the chairperson of Gauteng health department’s Accreditation Committee, and works for numerous nongovernmental and nonprofit organisations.

According to the Presidency, she is currently the Patron of the Early Care Foundation (previously ASHA Trust), a non-profit organisation which provides early childhood development support programmes for home based crèches in disadvantaged communities.

She also serves as patron of the South African Civil Society for Women’s, Adolescents’ and Children’s Health (SACSoWACH), the Students Sponsorship Program and is a trustee of the Hospice Association of the Witwatersrand.

This article was first published in February 2017 and updated to include additional information in 2022.