With his friendly, civilized attitude, decades of political experience and important role in the anti-apartheid movement, you would expect that Cyril Ramaphosa to confidently win a second term as president of South Africa.
But Ramaphosa led his African National Congress (ANC) to its worst election result in three decades: not enough to reach the 50% of votes needed to govern alone.
Following their dismal election performance in May, Mr Ramaphosa only survives as party leader and national president thanks to a power-sharing deal with the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA) and two smaller parties.
The 71-year-old’s first term as president was plagued by persistently high unemployment, persistent economic inequality, widespread power outages and allegations of corruption.
It is far from ideal, especially for a man who has reportedly coveted the presidential role since the ANC came to power in 1994.
Born close to the center of Johannesburg in 1952, Mr Ramaphosa experienced the injustices of the racist apartheid system early on.
His family was forcibly moved to the township of Soweto when he was just a young child. They were among the millions of black South Africans relocated by the authorities to distant, often economically disadvantaged reserves.
As a high school student, Mr Ramaphosa “spoke to his teachers at school when he felt they were not working hard enough”, his biographer Anthony Butler told the BBC.
“He was very confident and popular,” adds Prof Butler.
Mr Ramaphosa became involved in the black consciousness movement at university and as a result of his activism spent two months in solitary confinement.
He built a reputation as a thorn in the side of white mine bosses in the 1980s and led the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in one of the largest strikes in South Africa’s history.
He also joined the ANC and worked closely with Nelson Mandela to negotiate an end to minority rule, which came in 1994.
When Mandela became South Africa’s first black president, Ramaphosa harbored ambitions to become his deputy.
However, it was not to be: he was overlooked by the older Thabo Mbeki.
Discouraged, Mr Ramaphosa took on the role of MP and played a leading role in drafting South Africa’s post-apartheid constitution, one of the most liberal in the world.
He later withdrew from the political spotlight to become a businessman, despite being loved by the public.
“He was persuaded by Mandela and the others to take a time out. He was a relatively young man,” says Prof. Butler.
As white businessmen tried to accommodate him, Mr Ramaphosa acquired a stake in almost every major sector – from telecoms and media to drinks and fast food (he owned the South African franchise of US chain McDonalds) to mining .
His ventures were hugely lucrative: by 2015 he had become one of South Africa’s richest politicians with a net worth of around $450 million (£340 million).
But Ramaphosa’s reputation was tarnished after police killed 34 workers at the Marikana platinum mine in August 2012 – the deadliest police action since the end of white minority rule.
While Mr Ramaphosa was then a director at Lonmin – the multinational that owns the mine – he was accused of betraying the workers he once fought for, especially after emails emerged showing he had called for action against the miners for their involvement in ‘cowardly criminal acts’. a clear reference to their wild and violent strike.
A court-led investigation cleared him of involvement in the murders, but failed to completely remove the stain from his estate.
The trade unionist turned tycoon had just begun his political comeback after being elected deputy leader of the ANC.
Two years later, he became vice president of South Africa, lending legitimacy to Jacob Zuma’s scandal-hit presidency.
But as Zuma neared his two-term limit as ANC leader, Ramaphosa entered the succession battle and positioned himself as the anti-Zuma candidate.
His promises to fight corruption were widely seen as an attack on the man who remained his boss at the national level.
Ramaphosa was the natural favorite for the top position, but the then president backed his ex-wife and former head of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
A bitter battle ensued, with Ramaphosa eventually defeating Ms Dlamini-Zuma to become ANC leader in December 2017.
Zuma planned to remain president of South Africa until the 2019 general elections. But after intense pressure from ANC leaders – including Mr Ramaphosa – the embattled president was forced to resign.
After almost 25 years, Mr Ramaphosa’s long-held dream came true as MPs erupted in Parliament when it was announced he would succeed Mr Zuma as South Africa’s president.
The new leader used his first speech to take a stand against corruption, but soon afterwards became embroiled in a series of his own scandals.
In 2018, Mr Ramaphosa told parliament he had received no campaign donations from a controversial local company during his ANC leadership bid.
He later apologized and said he had been misinformed when he gave the answer.
This admission undermined Ramphosa’s own anti-corruption policies, but years later the Supreme Court rejected the idea that he had deliberately misled parliament.
In 2022, a long-awaited investigation exposed the looting of billions of dollars from South Africa’s treasury during Zuma’s presidency.
Mr Ramaphosa was implicated in the findings, with investigators concluding he should have done more to stop the rot while he was Mr Zuma’s deputy.
And just a few months later, before the dust of that investigation had settled, Mr Ramaphosa found himself at the center of another corruption scandal.
In June, the president was accused of covering up a theft of $4 million in cash from his Phala Phala game farm.
Although he denied any wrongdoing, the president admitted that money hidden in his bank had been stolen in 2020.
He said the money totaled $580,000 (£460,000), not $4 million, and that he had made the $580,000 by selling buffalo. An independent panel of legal experts, led by a former chief justice, said it had “substantial doubts” about whether such a sale actually took place.
His opponents – both inside and outside the ANC – called on him to resign over ‘Farmgate’, while parliament weighed whether or not to initiate impeachment proceedings.
But the president eventually won the support of ANC leaders and remained at the top.
“He handled that very effectively,” said Paddy Harper, a journalist with the South African newspaper Mail & Guardian, adding that the main criticisms of Mr Ramaphosa’s first term were issues such as the water crisis, tax cuts and unemployment .”
The ANC’s popularity has certainly suffered from these problems, but political analyst Richard Calland tells the BBC that Ramaphosa has been a “stable, if not spectacular” president who inherited the adverse conditions of the previous government.
“I think he has been the leader we needed and the best available leader, despite his weaknesses, despite the fact that many of the metrics around the recovery of the economy and so on are still negative,” he says.
Under Mr Ramaphosa, South Africa has emphasized its credentials as a champion of the global south, particularly in the way it has led Israel’s condemnation of its war in Gaza. This culminated in South Africa taking Israel to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing the country of genocide.
It is also a leading voice in the Brics group of countries, which is seen as an alternative to the more Western-oriented G7.
Under Mr Ramaphosa, South Africa has refused to condemn Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, straining relations with the US. The president led a delegation of African heads of state to both Kiev and Moscow in an ultimately fruitless attempt to broker a peace deal.
In 2019, the president was praised for appointing a new cabinet in which, for the first time in the country’s history, half of all ministers were women.
From trade unionist to leader of one of Africa’s largest economies, Mr Ramaphosa’s career has been a catalog of contradictions, historic moments and fierce battles.
He now has another big challenge ahead of him. If the deal with his former enemies in the DA succeeds in turning around South Africa’s moribund economy and creating jobs for the millions who need them, he will be remembered as the man who saved his country and his party.
But if not, even more South Africans will be tempted to support his arch-rival Jacob Zuma and his uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party.
