Mamphela Ramphele

Mamphela Ramphele (born December 28, 1947, Uitkyk, South Africa) is a South African activist, physician, academic, businesswoman, and political leader known for her activism efforts for the rights of black South Africans and her fight against South Africa’s discriminatory policies of apartheid. She founded a political party, Agang SA, in 2013. The following year she announced her retirement from politics.

Ramphele’s parents were teachers who encouraged her to excel academically. She decided to study medicine, an ambitious decision during South Africa’s apartheid era. She began her studies in 1967 at the University of the North and then entered the University of Natal the next year, from which she received her medical degree in 1972.

Ramphele became politically active while at the University of Natal, where she met Steve Biko, an activist and fellow student with whom she would later have a long-term relationship. She became a member of the South African Students’ Organization founded by Biko and worked on community initiatives to improve the lives of black South Africans. Ramphele was also closely involved in the Black Consciousness Movement led by Biko, which espoused the rights of black South Africans, preached black unity and self-reliance, and rejected the discriminatory policies of apartheid.

Because of her antiapartheid activities, Ramphele was detained by the South African government for four and a half months in 1976. The next year she was banned—an apartheid-era legal action that was used to suppress organizations and publications and severely restrict the activities of a person—and exiled to the Tzaneen district of the Transvaal (now in Limpopo province), where she would remain until 1984. While there she established a health centre and other community-oriented initiatives. During that time she also continued her studies, earning a Bachelor of Commerce in administration from the University of South Africa as well as a postgraduate diploma in tropical health and hygiene and a diploma in public health from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Ramphele left Tzaneen after her banning orders expired and eventually went to Cape Town, where she became a researcher with the South African Labour and Development Research Unit at the University of Cape Town. Ramphele was named deputy vice-chancellor of the university in 1991, the same year she earned a Ph.D. in social anthropology from the school. In 1996 she was appointed vice-chancellor of the university and became the first black African and the first woman to hold the vice-chancellor post at a South African university.

From 2000 to 2004 Ramphele served as a managing director of the World Bank, focusing on human development initiatives. She was the first African to hold that position. Ramphele also served as chairman of or on the boards of several corporations and charitable organizations.

In 2013 Ramphele founded Agang SA (agang is the Sotho word for “build,” and SA refers to South Africa), which championed a corruption-free government and democratic freedoms for all. In early 2014 it briefly appeared that Agang SA and the Democratic Alliance, the chief opposition party, would merge, but the proposed amalgamation was not implemented.

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In the May 2014 elections, Ramphele’s Agang SA won less than 1 percent of the national vote, which netted the party two seats in the National Assembly. Agang SA did not win any seats in provincial legislatures. Ramphele did not assume one of the National Assembly seats.

Arguments within the party over leadership and financial issues led to a faction of Agang SA claiming to suspend Ramphele as party leader in late June, while her supporters rejected the validity of the claim and, in turn, said that the faction members had been suspended or expelled from the party. In the midst of that dissonance, on July 8, 2014, Ramphele stepped down as the leader of Agang SA, stating that she was leaving the world of party politics but would continue to advocate for change and progress as a member of civil society.

Among Ramphele’s numerous books are Uprooting Poverty: The South African Challenge (with Francis Wilson, 1989), Across Boundaries: The Journey of a South African Woman Leader (1996; originally published in South Africa in 1995 as A Life), Laying Ghosts to Rest: Dilemmas of the Transformation in South Africa (2008), Conversations with My Sons and Daughters (2012), and Socio-Economic Equality and Democratic Freedom in South Africa (2013). She received many international awards recognizing her accomplishments in education and activism.