Word: ramaphosa
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...refused," said Cyril Ramaphosa, a union leader and one of the main organizers. "The ANC lives. It is amongst...
...Cyril Ramaphosa, a leader of the Mass Democratic Movement, says Viljoen's proposal would cause the A.N.C. to "lose ground" if it were simply "one of many groups." Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, head of the 1.5 million-member Inkatha movement and an opponent of the A.N.C.'s socialist orientation, responds, "I shudder to think what would happen to South Africa if we all stood aside and allowed only one black party to negotiate the country's future." To try to hurdle this and other obstacles and preconditions, Viljoen suggests preliminary "talks about talks...
...quandary: they tend to favor negotiations because the process might lead to government concessions that are unforeseen now, but they do not want to go to the table if their presence offers nothing but a public relations success for De Klerk by making him look like a peacemaker. Ramaphosa, head of the black National Union of Mineworkers, concedes that the government does appear to be seeking change. "One could say they are willing to usher in a new South Africa," he says, "but some of us have serious doubts because they are still talking about group rights. That...
Arrested in 1974 for organizing a rally for rebels in Mozambique, Ramaphosa spent eleven months in jail. He was held for six more months in 1976 under the Terrorism Act, one of a battery of South African laws aimed at cracking down on dissidents. Since then, Ramaphosa has moved away from the Biko philosophy that only blacks have a role to play in overthrowing apartheid and toward the view that all racial groups should join in ending the system...
...years after the government gave full recognition to black unions in 1979, Ramaphosa collected his law degree and joined the legal staff of the Council of South African Unions, a black labor organization that was trying to form a national black miners' union. Ramaphosa became the mine workers' general secretary the following year and learned a string of hard lessons when he led three strikes that lasted no longer than 48 hours each. Yet the union's membership grew steadily, and its tactics became bolder. Said Johannesburg's Business Day of last month's walkout: "The union demonstrated an impressive...