biography
| name: |
Ramaphosa, Cyril (Matamela)
|
pronunciation:
[ramapohza]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1952– )
|
| biography:
| South African politician and trade unionist, born in Johannesburg, NE South Africa. He entered politics as a student at the University of the North, and was detained for the first time in 1974. He qualified as a lawyer, and worked initially in the legal department of a trade union grouping. In 1982 he was elected as the first general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, which rapidly grew to become the largest trade union in South Africa. He played a prominent part in the protest politics of the 1980s, and in 1991 became the secretary-general of the African National Congress, resigning in 1996. He was perhaps the Congress's most effective representative during the complex sequence of formal negotiations that began in December 1991. |
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