BOOK REVIEW: The enigma that is Cyril Ramaphosa
Veteran journalist and editor Ray Hartley explores some of the events and people who shaped the ANC’s new leader, writes Xolisa Phillip
Cyril Ramaphosa is synonymous with the Constitution-drafting process for the "new" SA, having been handpicked by Nelson Mandela to lead negotiations for drawing up a road map to a post-apartheid state. His time as a trade union organiser at the country’s mines during the height of apartheid made him the ideal candidate for the task, having experienced firsthand the might of the apartheid state machinery as well as having faced off with mining industry titans. However, Ramaphosa, who had been integral to the negotiated transition to democracy, skipped out on Mandela’s inauguration after having been overlooked for the ANC deputy presidency, which went to Thabo Mbeki. The politician is a man of many parts, as sketched out in Ramaphosa: The man who would be king, by veteran journalist and editor Ray Hartley. The book is a 10-chapter and 198-page exploration of the many components that have contributed to the makings of the political enigma that is Ramaphosa, a lawyer-turned-unionist, a ...
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