Mr Andile Ramaphosa during the dowry ceremony at former presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi’s home in Kololo on saturday. PHOTO BY STEPHEN OTAGE
Andile Ramaphosa, was barely known in Uganda a week ago and yet he was competing for media attention space with Prince Harry over the weekend.
The son to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa first made headlines in Uganda when news of his pending nuptials with a niece to former Prime Minister and presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi, leaked to the media.
Andile Ramaphosa jetted into Uganda on Friday to officially ask for Mbabazi’s permission to marry his niece Bridget Rwakairu Birungi. In a lavish ceremony held at Mbabazi’s home in Kololo, permission was given. But the question on many peoples’ minds is “Who is Andile Ramaphosa?”
The eldest of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s children, Andile is the Managing Director of Blue Crane Capital Limited since 2014. Andile studied his undergraduate at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where he completed a Business Science in Finance and Statistics (B.Bus.Sc).
He then went on to work in asset management working for Coronation Asset Management as a Senior Analyst. After working for Coronation for two years, he went on to complete his first Masters in Economics (MA) in Shanghai China at Fudan University.
In 2011 he joined Standard Bank (Stanbic) in China as part of the ICBC relationship team, where he gained a lot of experience in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), project financing and as well as China-Africa business opportunities.
Whilst in China, Andile Ramaphosa completed his second Masters Science in Finance (MSc.Fin) through a joint programme offered by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and New York University (Stern Business School).
During his period in China, Andile met Rwakairu, his soon-to-be-wife. In 2012 he returned to South Africa where he then joined Macquarie Bank as their as their head of Africa Strategy in the executive team in South Africa where he worked till 2014 when he joined Blue Crane Capital Limited.
Andile Ramaphosa has led a private life despite being the president’s son. In fact he only grabbed the spotlight in South Africa last year, after taking great exception to allegations made against the Ramaphosa children by then-deputy president by EFF leader, Julius Malema whom you might remember from the #JuliusMalemaChallenge.
READ: Twitter goes crazy with #JuliusMalemaChallenge
Andile’s brother Tumelo Ramaphosa‚ though‚ is active on Instagram‚ which has got women hot under the collar‚ according to Sunday World‚ which recently reported that Tumelo has been unofficially crowned the new national bae.
Based on his Instagram profile‚ the US-based Tumelo is a gym fanatic with rugby player thighs and body builder biceps to show for it‚ said Sunday World‚ adding: “The 30-year-old is a man’s man – not afraid to pet tigers and use a sniper gun – although he lives to protect animals from being shot. He also has a crazy obsession with wolves,”.
Andile has 734 Twitter follower while Tumelo has 984.