PATRICK BULGER: Urban, employable, rich - a new kind of leader for the ANC
Here are some facts about Cyril Ramaphosa that may be relevant or decisive as he negotiates the years ahead, first as president of the ANC and second, presumably, as president of South Africa. These autobiographical details suggest a departure from the template that defined democratic South Africa’s earlier presidents. On the face of it they herald a different style and tone of government ahead, a new type of leader, albeit within the confines imposed on him by the ANC. Ramaphosa would be the first of the democratic presidents with an urban pedigree, born in a township, Soweto, rather than in the rural backwaters that gave us Nelson Mandela: Mvezo and Qunu in the Eastern Cape; Thabo Mbeki: Mbewuleni in Idutywa, also in the Eastern Cape; and Jacob Zuma: Nkandla (where else?) in KwaZulu-Natal. Ramaphosa’s kasi roots suggest a leader whose world view is informed and shaped by the rude clash of cultures of city life. By contrast, the certainties of established rural existence, its ritua...
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