Mandelas man, Mbekis rival South Africas next president?
He helped end apartheid. Now Cyril Ramaphosa is tipped for the presidency, says Fred Bridgland in Johannesburg
The way is open, following last weeks dramatic sacking and shaming of Vice President Jacob Zuma, for South Africas lost president to claim the most powerful post in the land, the presidency itself
The lost president, a man infinitely more popular than incumbent state president Thabo Mbeki, was nominated by the countrys first black president, Nelson Mandela, as his ideal successor. Mandela paid him the highest compliment when he said: It is he who is really responsible for the settlement that led [peacefully from apartheid] to a democratic South Africa.
South Africa is awash with rumour and plotting about the presidential succession now that Zuma, strongly tipped to succeed Mbeki, is out of the race and facing certain prosecution for widespread fraud and corruption.
If a popular vote was taken among all classes and colours, the overwhelming favourite now would be a man Mbeki hates and who he prevented from succeeding Mandela in 1999.
Cyril Ramaphosa, the most successful trade union leader in South Africas history, became secretary-general of the newly unbanned African National Congress in 1991. He negotiated with the apartheid state the peace deal that led to the ANCs election to power in 1994, with Mandela as president.
Ramaphosa, just 41 at the time, seemed to be inexorably on the path to the presidency. Widely popular among black and white, he was affable, modest and charming, but with a deceptively tough inner core; necessary for survival in the brutality of liberation politics.
The son of a black policeman, who enforced apartheid laws, and a domestic maid, Ramaphosa resisted the white government without fleeing abroad and twice went to prison, unlike Mbeki, who went into exile.
After one spell of 11 months in solitary confinement, he com pleted a law degree and joined the trade union movement and Steve Bikos Black Consciousness Movement. When the union laws were relaxed in 1982, 29-year-old Ramaphosa became leader of the National Union of Mineworkers.
Within five years, Ramaphosa had built the membership from 6000 to 350,000. The NUM had become the richest and most powerful trade union in the land, and it went on to become the backbone of the Mass Democratic Movement, the surrogate for the outlawed ANC.
Ramaphosa led the countrys first legal strike by black mineworkers, whose labour made possible the fabulous wealth enjoyed by white bosses on the 6000-feet-high Witwatersrand , a bleak, treeless, rocky line of hills which was virtually uninhabited when gold was discovered there in the late 19th century .
The strike forced the mine bosses to take note whenever Rama phosa addressed a workers rally. He won respect from the bosses as a man who bargained hard and skilfully and won good awards for his members, but who, when he said yes to a deal, meant it and had the ability to carry his followers with him. Notably, he secured an agreement to remove racial discrimination in the mines while such practices were still enshrined in apart heid laws.
Ramaphosa negotiated hard but he also displayed intellectual rigour, an understanding of the bosses problems and ability in presenting sympathetically the needs and aspirations of his members. Even when angry, he was controlled.
All these qualities paved the way to him becoming secretary- general of the unbanned ANC, and chief ANC negotiator to establish a democratic constitution and the countrys first all-race general election, as well as receiving the blessing from Mandela as his heir-apparent.
But both Mandela and Ramaphosa reckoned without Mbeki, embittered that Mandela had overlooked him as the chief negotiator . Mbeki felt he deserved the position, having established in exile the first talks in Zambia, Senegal and Englands Mells Castle between the ANC and members of the white establishment and barons of industry.
Internal ANC politics are rough and conflict-ridden. One of the key divisions is between those who went into exile to fight apartheid and those who stayed . In exile for nearly 30 years, the pipe- smoking, Sussex University-educated Mbeki became the protg and right-hand man of Oliver Tambo, the ANC leader while Mandela was imprisoned.
Although Mbeki had been chosen by Tambo as the future leader of South Africa, he enjoyed little popular support. Within the organisation not a single song the liberation movements ultimate tribute and measure of popular appeal was dedicated to Mbeki, says newspaper columnist William Gumede, author of a new biography , Thabo Mbeki And The Battle For The Soul Of The ANC.
But Mbeki had been trained in the fierce exile politics of the ANC, which included torture and executions at the notorious Quattro Camp in Angola. While Ramaphosa negotiated the countrys future, Mbeki plotted the eventual toppling of his nemesis. He recruited support from, among others, Winnie Mandela, leader of the ANC Womens League, and from Peter Mokaba, leader of the ANC Youth League. Ramaphosa had vigorously condemned both Mrs Mandela and Mokaba Mandela for her involvement in the death of 14-year-old Stompie Moeketsi and several other young township boys, and Mokaba for inciting youths at public rallies to kill white farmers.
Mokaba became Mbekis chief spokesman on the presidents eccentric view that Aids was not caused by the HIV virus but by poverty. Ironically, Mokaba subsequently died of Aids, denying to the last that he had the virus.
Mbeki narrowly won the struggle in the inner circle of the ANC and became vice-president and then in 1999 president. Ramaphosa was asked to become foreign minister, but instead quit parliament and built a successful business career. However, he continued to top polls among the ANCs ordinary members for election to the movements national executive committee
Mbeki will not ask him to succeed Zuma, and Ramaphosa would in any case refuse. B ut he is widely believed to be garnering support for a bid for the Presidency when Mbeki steps down in 2008. Should he decide to run, it is a bid that would be widely welcomed at both home and abroad.
19 June 2005
www.sundayherald.com/50358
He helped end apartheid. Now Cyril Ramaphosa is tipped for the presidency, says Fred Bridgland in Johannesburg
The way is open, following last weeks dramatic sacking and shaming of Vice President Jacob Zuma, for South Africas lost president to claim the most powerful post in the land, the presidency itself
The lost president, a man infinitely more popular than incumbent state president Thabo Mbeki, was nominated by the countrys first black president, Nelson Mandela, as his ideal successor. Mandela paid him the highest compliment when he said: It is he who is really responsible for the settlement that led [peacefully from apartheid] to a democratic South Africa.
South Africa is awash with rumour and plotting about the presidential succession now that Zuma, strongly tipped to succeed Mbeki, is out of the race and facing certain prosecution for widespread fraud and corruption.
If a popular vote was taken among all classes and colours, the overwhelming favourite now would be a man Mbeki hates and who he prevented from succeeding Mandela in 1999.
Cyril Ramaphosa, the most successful trade union leader in South Africas history, became secretary-general of the newly unbanned African National Congress in 1991. He negotiated with the apartheid state the peace deal that led to the ANCs election to power in 1994, with Mandela as president.
Ramaphosa, just 41 at the time, seemed to be inexorably on the path to the presidency. Widely popular among black and white, he was affable, modest and charming, but with a deceptively tough inner core; necessary for survival in the brutality of liberation politics.
The son of a black policeman, who enforced apartheid laws, and a domestic maid, Ramaphosa resisted the white government without fleeing abroad and twice went to prison, unlike Mbeki, who went into exile.
After one spell of 11 months in solitary confinement, he com pleted a law degree and joined the trade union movement and Steve Bikos Black Consciousness Movement. When the union laws were relaxed in 1982, 29-year-old Ramaphosa became leader of the National Union of Mineworkers.
Within five years, Ramaphosa had built the membership from 6000 to 350,000. The NUM had become the richest and most powerful trade union in the land, and it went on to become the backbone of the Mass Democratic Movement, the surrogate for the outlawed ANC.
Ramaphosa led the countrys first legal strike by black mineworkers, whose labour made possible the fabulous wealth enjoyed by white bosses on the 6000-feet-high Witwatersrand , a bleak, treeless, rocky line of hills which was virtually uninhabited when gold was discovered there in the late 19th century .
The strike forced the mine bosses to take note whenever Rama phosa addressed a workers rally. He won respect from the bosses as a man who bargained hard and skilfully and won good awards for his members, but who, when he said yes to a deal, meant it and had the ability to carry his followers with him. Notably, he secured an agreement to remove racial discrimination in the mines while such practices were still enshrined in apart heid laws.
Ramaphosa negotiated hard but he also displayed intellectual rigour, an understanding of the bosses problems and ability in presenting sympathetically the needs and aspirations of his members. Even when angry, he was controlled.
All these qualities paved the way to him becoming secretary- general of the unbanned ANC, and chief ANC negotiator to establish a democratic constitution and the countrys first all-race general election, as well as receiving the blessing from Mandela as his heir-apparent.
But both Mandela and Ramaphosa reckoned without Mbeki, embittered that Mandela had overlooked him as the chief negotiator . Mbeki felt he deserved the position, having established in exile the first talks in Zambia, Senegal and Englands Mells Castle between the ANC and members of the white establishment and barons of industry.
Internal ANC politics are rough and conflict-ridden. One of the key divisions is between those who went into exile to fight apartheid and those who stayed . In exile for nearly 30 years, the pipe- smoking, Sussex University-educated Mbeki became the protg and right-hand man of Oliver Tambo, the ANC leader while Mandela was imprisoned.
Although Mbeki had been chosen by Tambo as the future leader of South Africa, he enjoyed little popular support. Within the organisation not a single song the liberation movements ultimate tribute and measure of popular appeal was dedicated to Mbeki, says newspaper columnist William Gumede, author of a new biography , Thabo Mbeki And The Battle For The Soul Of The ANC.
But Mbeki had been trained in the fierce exile politics of the ANC, which included torture and executions at the notorious Quattro Camp in Angola. While Ramaphosa negotiated the countrys future, Mbeki plotted the eventual toppling of his nemesis. He recruited support from, among others, Winnie Mandela, leader of the ANC Womens League, and from Peter Mokaba, leader of the ANC Youth League. Ramaphosa had vigorously condemned both Mrs Mandela and Mokaba Mandela for her involvement in the death of 14-year-old Stompie Moeketsi and several other young township boys, and Mokaba for inciting youths at public rallies to kill white farmers.
Mokaba became Mbekis chief spokesman on the presidents eccentric view that Aids was not caused by the HIV virus but by poverty. Ironically, Mokaba subsequently died of Aids, denying to the last that he had the virus.
Mbeki narrowly won the struggle in the inner circle of the ANC and became vice-president and then in 1999 president. Ramaphosa was asked to become foreign minister, but instead quit parliament and built a successful business career. However, he continued to top polls among the ANCs ordinary members for election to the movements national executive committee
Mbeki will not ask him to succeed Zuma, and Ramaphosa would in any case refuse. B ut he is widely believed to be garnering support for a bid for the Presidency when Mbeki steps down in 2008. Should he decide to run, it is a bid that would be widely welcomed at both home and abroad.
19 June 2005
www.sundayherald.com/50358
