Media Statements

The African National Congress marks this day, 17 November, with profound appreciation and revolutionary pride as we celebrate the seventy-third birthday of our President, Comrade Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa. His life story stands as an enduring example of activism, discipline, principled leadership, and solid loyalty to the cause of national liberation and the construction of a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.

President Cyril Ramaphosa was born in Johannesburg in 1952. He embraced the struggle at a young age, involved in student politics and used his legal training as a weapon in the hands of the oppressed, defending workers and communities whose rights were brutally crushed under apartheid.

His historic role as founding General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) transformed the lives of mineworkers and reshaped the labour movement. Under his leadership, NUM grew into the most powerful union of its time, and he became central to the birth of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). He remains a towering figure in the story of working class resistance.

Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa was elected Secretary General of the ANC in 1991 and went on to lead our negotiations at CODESA, being instrumental in securing the democratic breakthrough of 1994. As Chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly, he guided the drafting of South Africa’s democratic Constitution, a document that continues to defend the dignity, equality and freedoms of all the people of South Africa.

He has since served the movement and people with distinction as ANC Deputy President, Deputy President of the Republic, and ultimately as President of the ANC and the Republic of South Africa. Throughout, he has championed the renewal of the movement, ethical governance, social justice, and a developmental agenda that places the poor and working class at the centre of transformation.

We wish our President strength, courage and continued revolutionary clarity as he leads our people in advancing the National Democratic Revolution and defending the hard-won sovereignty of our nation.

Long live President Ramaphosa Long live!

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