Born in a black township in 1952, Cyril Ramaphosa rose to become South Africa's leading trade unionist, switching to politics and then to business after the end of apartheid. He became one of the country's richest men, and is still occasionally mentioned as a possible future president. Nowhe is the face of McDonald's in Africa's biggest economy.
Mr Ramaphosa, who once said his favourite meal was a fish with salad, will own and run all the American burger giant's operations in the country, including 132 outlets. He will have a 20-yearfranchise and a mandate to "turbocharge" growth. The price of the deal has not been revealed. Since opening its first restaurant in South Africa in 1995, McDonald's has struggled against fierce home-grown competition. Famous Brands, its main rival, has more than 1100 outlets, operating under such names as Steers, Wimpy and Mugg & Bean.
Mr Ramaphosa, a lawyer by training, founded the National Union Mine-workers, building up to become Sout Africa's most powerful union. He helped bring about apartheid's peaceful end as one of the African National Congress's main negotiators, By the time he was elected to parliament in the country's first fully democratic elections in 1994 he was already being tipped as Nelson Mandela's likely successor, but he lost out to Thabo Mbeki.
He promply resigned his political posts and went into business. With his formidable connections, negotiating skills and charm, he took to it like a duck to water. He was one of the first to benefit from the ANC government's black economic empowerment (BEE) policies, building an empire in mining, energy, property, banking, inssurance and the telecoms. With investments said to be worth 1.55 billion rand ($224m), Mr Ramaphosa had joined the 31-strong club or rand billionaires. His wife is the sister of Patrice Motsepe, another BEE tycoon and the country's firstblack dollar billionaire.
Deals like the McDonald's one seem to fall into Mr Ramaphosa's lap. As well as servingas executive chairman of his own Shanduka group, he has a string of non-executivechairmanships and directorships of some of the country's biggest and best-known companies, including Bidvest, a giant food-service and distribution business. He is also a member of Coca-Cola's international advisory board. both positions should serve him good stead in his new job. Although South Africa's media continue to talk up his presidential prospects, he says he has no interest in returning to politics.
Does South Africa media really need any more fast-food joints? The World Health Organization reckons 62% of the country's men and and 73% of its women are already overweight, making it one of the fattest countries in the world. Almost a quarter of men and two-fifths of women are obese. But then, as President Jacob Zuma has shown with his three large wives and one equally large wife-in-waiting, in South Africa big is beautiful.
Source: The Economist, March 26th 2011
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