Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa celebrates his 64th birthday today and will be spending his day celebrating with family.
Living a quiet and subtle life, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa says he has kept a low profile on his activities as those who support him took to facebook, sending him good will and birthday messages.
Born and raised in Soweto, Ramaphosa is identified with in the Senaoane community as that is where he attended his primary school.
He then attended high school at Sekano –Ntoane Secondary school in Senaoane/Chawelo and completed his matric in 1971 at Mphaphuli Secondary in Limpopo.
Being the influential person he is, he joined the South African Organisation of Students when he was in The University of the North.
Ramaphosa was detained in 1974 for organising pro-Frelimo rallies that celebrated the independence of Mozambique and he was later detained for the second time in 1976 following the Soweto student uprising.
In 1982 Ramaphosa became the first general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, that becoming one of the major moves into his business career although politics were a priority at the time.
In 1991, he was elected African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General and subsequently became head of the ANC team that negotiated the transition to democracy.
Following the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, he was elected chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly, which wrote South Africa’s new democratic constitution.
Ramaphosa then moved into the private sector in 1996, and in 2001 he founded Shanduka Group investment holding company.
He resigned from Shanduka in 2012 following his appointment as Deputy President of South Africa in 2012.
Some of ramaphosa’s responsibilities in the presidency include being the Chairperson of the Human Resource Development Council of South Africa;
– Chairperson of the South African National Aids Council;
– Champion of social cohesion initiatives;
– Coordination of anti-poverty and short-term job creation programmes;
– Promotion of dialogue on wage inequalities and labour stability among social partners;
– Leader of Government Business in Parliament;
– Champion of the institutionalisation of best-practice models in the Public Service;
– Overseeing the transformation of state-owned enterprises;
– Overseeing the turnaround of South African Airways, electricity utility Eskom and the South African Post Office;
– International engagement in support of South Africa’s foreign policy and international cooperation objectives.
#ANC congratulates Deputy President, Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa, on the occasion of his 64th birthday pic.twitter.com/SLVmF2Cuvj
— African National Congress (@MYANC) November 17, 2016
Good morning! Happy Birthday to Deputy President #CyrilRamaphosa, who shares a birthday with me :-) #JR61
— John Robbie (@John_C_Robbie) November 17, 2016
Happy Birthday to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. @CyrilFoundation @PresidencyZA pic.twitter.com/3uTCqNqaRz
— Yusuf Abramjee (@Abramjee) November 17, 2016
