Kgosientsho Ramokgopa

Ramokgopa meets Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño in Quito, 11 April 2013

On 2 November 2010, the Tshwane council elected Ramokgopa as Mayor of Tshwane; he beat the opposition candidate, Gerhardus Pretorius of the Democratic Alliance, with 92 votes to Pretorius's 49.[10] He succeeded his aunt, Gwen Ramokgopa, who had left the position to serve as Deputy Minister of Health under President Jacob Zuma.[11] Despite predictions that the ANC would lose its majority in Tshwane in the 2011 local government elections,[12] Ramokgopa retained his position in 2011; after his re-election in May, he announced a major reshuffle of his Mayoral Committee.[13]

The Business Day said that "the largest blight on his legacy" as mayor was a project to roll-out smart prepaid electricity meters across the city under the Security of Revenue Project, launched in October 2013.[14] The contract to install the meters, awarded to PEU Capital Partners, was challenged in the courts and opposition parties said that it had been awarded irregularly and had cost the city billions of rands in unnecessary expenditures.[15][16][17]

While mayor, Ramokgopa retained his post as ANC Regional Chairperson in Tshwane, winning re-election in 2011[18] and 2014.[19] In 2011, a lobby group – consisting of elements of the trade unions, the South African Communist Party (SACP), and the ANC Youth League – sought unsuccessfully to replace him with Lucky Montana, the chief executive of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa.[20] In 2014, he faced opposition from a larger grouping, including various local business forums and regional structures of the SACP, its Young Communist League, the ANC Youth League, and Congress of South African Trade Unions.[21] The regional SACP said that it would boycott the 2014 provincial elective conference and instead organised a march on the Union Buildings, calling for the Tshwane municipality to be put under administration by the national government.[21]

Ahead of the 2016 local government elections, Ramokgopa was ranked second on the regional ANC's list of nominees to stand for election as councillor, but he was not nominated to stand for re-election as mayor.[22] Reports suggested that he had been passed over due to "intense factional battles" between his supporters and supporters of ANC Deputy Regional Chairperson Mapiti Matsena, as well as because of concerns about his style of governance and the smart meter contract.[22][14] In addition, sources told the Mail & Guardian that Ramokgopa had fallen out with Paul Mashatile and other provincial ANC leaders over questions of national leadership succession in the ANC: he had apparently disagreed with their harsh response to a recent Constitutional Court finding that President Jacob Zuma had misconducted himself in respect of the Nkandla scandal, and had urged the provincial leadership publicly to accept Zuma's apology. Mashatile denied that such divisions existed.[23]

In June 2016, tensions about the Tshwane mayoral candidacy rose and peaked when the national ANC announced that it had proposed national politician Thoko Didiza as the party's candidate to succeed Ramokgopa.[24] During the week after the announcement, at least five people died in violent protests in Tshwane.[25][26] Ramokgopa himself was serene about his imminent departure from the mayoral office[27] and expressed his support for Didiza,[28] calling for calm in the city.[29] At political meetings, however, local ANC members opposed to Didiza reportedly demanded his re-election, chanting "No Sputla, no votes".[30] A leading local newspaper, the Pretoria News, and the Mail & Guardian both reported that the violence had allegedly been part of a campaign by Ramokgopa's supporters to make Tshwane "ungovernable" after Didiza's nomination.[31][23]

The ANC ultimately lost its majority in Tshwane in the 2016 election, for the first time since the end of apartheid, and Ramokgopa was succeeded as mayor by a Democratic Alliance candidate, Solly Msimanga, rather than by Didiza. While the votes in the election were still being counted, Ramokgopa said that he would not take up a seat as an ordinary councillor – despite previous announcements to the contrary – but instead would focus on his PhD thesis and his party work. He said that he wanted a "break" and to "give [Didiza] space" since "it would be an awkward situation" with Didiza leading the municipality while he led the regional ANC.[14]

Ramokgopa addressing an Open Government Partnership event, September 2015

Ramokgopa continued to lead the Tshwane ANC, though as an appointed Regional Convener rather than as an elected Regional Chairperson after his three-year term expired in 2017.[32] In July 2018, he did not stand for re-election as ANC Regional Chairperson and Kgoši Maepa was elected to succeed him.[33] By then, Ramokgopa was touted as a possible candidate to succeed Paul Mashatile as ANC Provincial Chairperson in Gauteng; one group within the party, reportedly led by Lebogang Maile, was rumoured to support Ramokgopa over the frontrunner, David Makhura.[34][35] At the ANC's provincial elective conference later in July, Ramokgopa was nominated to stand for the chairmanship but declined, winning Makhura to be elected unopposed.[36][37] Ramokgopa was, however, elected to a four-year term on the Provincial Executive Committee of the Gauteng ANC and subsequently chaired its subcommittee on economic transformation.[38]

In the 2019 general election, Ramokgopa was elected to a seat in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature;[39] he was ranked 10th on the party list of the ANC, which remained the majority party in Gauteng.[40] Shortly after the election, on 29 May, Makhura, as Premier of Gauteng, appointed Ramokgopa to his Executive Council; he served as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Economic Development, Agriculture, and Environment.[41]

However, Ramokgopa spent only four-and-a-half months in this position; he resigned on 11 October and was replaced by Morakane Mosupyoe. His resignation and replacement was largely understood to be related to a directive from the ANC national leadership compelling Makhura to replace one of his six male MECs to improve gender representation in the Executive Council: the party had decided that 60% of the provincial executive should be female in provinces where the Premier was male.[42][43] The Provincial Secretary of the Gauteng ANC, Jacob Khawe, confirmed this and said that other provincial leaders admired Ramokgopa for volunteering to resign, a decision that the Gauteng ANC viewed as "an act of revolutionary consciousness that can be a lesson to others".[44]

In the weeks after Ramokgopa resigned from the Executive Council, City Press and News24 reported that the ANC was considering Ramokgopa for deployment to a range of public offices, including possibly in Premier Makhura's office, at a state-owned enterprise like Eskom or Trasnet, or as Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy following the death of incumbent Bavelile Hlongwa.[42][45] On 4 November 2019, less than a month after Ramokgopa's resignation as MEC, the Presidency announced that Ramokgopa had been appointed head of the new Investment and Infrastructure Office under President Cyril Ramaphosa.[46] The office was established to develop and coordinate South Africa's investment strategy,[46] and Ramokgopa reported directly to the President.[47] He retained the position as of 2022[48] and Investec described him as "respected and competent".[47]

Ramokgopa also remained active in the ANC, although he failed to gain re-election to the Gauteng Provincial Executive Committee at the next provincial elective conference in July 2022.[49] When the ANC held its 55th National Conference in December 2022, Ramokgopa was elected to the party's National Executive Committee for the first time; by number of votes received, he was ranked 49th of the 80 candidates elected, receiving 1,229 votes across the 4,029 ballots cast in total.[50]

On 6 March 2023, Ramokgopa was appointed Minister in the Presidency responsible for Electricity by president Cyril Ramaphosa.[51] He was sworn into office the following day.[52]