Cyril Ramaphosa

Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa (born 17 November 1952) is a South African lawyer, trade unionist, businessman, and politician who has served as President of South Africa since 15 February 2018, when he succeeded Jacob Zuma following Zuma's resignation amid corruption allegations. He was re-elected after the May 2024 general election, in which the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since 1994, leading to the formation of a Government of National Unity (GNU) with the Democratic Alliance and several smaller parties.

Ramaphosa rose to prominence in the 1980s as the founding general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and was a central figure in the anti-apartheid movement. He led the ANC's negotiating team during the multiparty talks (CODESA) that produced South Africa's democratic transition, and chaired the Constitutional Assembly that drafted the 1996 Constitution. Passed over for the deputy presidency in favour of Thabo Mbeki in 1994, he moved into business, becoming one of South Africa's wealthiest individuals through Shanduka Group and other ventures.

He returned to frontline politics when elected ANC Deputy President in 2012 and Deputy President of South Africa in 2014 under Zuma. He narrowly won the ANC presidency at the Nasrec conference in December 2017.

His tenure has been marked by anti-corruption efforts, including the Zondo Commission into state capture; the COVID-19 response; the July 2021 unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng; chronic electricity load-shedding by Eskom; and a more activist foreign policy, including South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice filed in December 2023. He has faced his own controversies, notably the "Phala Phala" farm scandal involving undeclared foreign currency stolen from his game farm in 2020.