Ramaphosa: The Man Who Would Be King, by Ray Hartley‚ editor at large for Tiso Blackstar‚ profiles presidential contender Cyril Ramaphosa. The book launch will be held at Exclusive Books in Brooklyn‚ Pretoria‚ on Wednesday evening‚ Exclusive Books in Rosebank‚ Johannesburg‚ on Thursday and the Book Lounge in Cape Town next Wednesday. In this extract‚ supplied by Jonathan Ball Publishers‚ Hartley tackles Cyril Ramaphosa’s entry into the commanding heights of business. The Johnnic deal‚ 1996: Just as the momentum for the big deal was building‚ and he had delivered the final Constitution‚ Ramaphosa announced that he was leaving politics to chart a way forward for black empowerment. The way he told it to me‚ he felt naturally drawn to a role in business: "By and large we had just postponed our attention as the ANC on the economy‚ on the economic empowerment project and I felt that I would like to play a role in this. I think in part it was my own entrepreneurial spirit which I had had e...

Subscribe now to unlock this article.

Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).

There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.

Cancel anytime.

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.