Today, Cyril Ramaphosa will ascend to the highest office in the land.

But how did he get here?

From his early days as a union man to Codesa negotiator, top businessman to government, eNCA's Aviwe Mtila tracks his rise to the presidency.

said Ubrey Matshiqi, Political Analyst.   

Ramaphosa started as an anti-apartheid activist who first came to prominence in the 1980s as co-founder of the National Union of Mineworkers.

He led the historic 1987 strike which brought the mining sector to its knees.

In July 1991, Ramaphosa was elected the Secretary-General of the ANC and became the head of the negotiations commissions of the party at Codesa.

He's widely praised for forging relations with his National Party counterpart, Roelf Meyer, who both set aside their political differences to bring about a peaceful transition to democracy.

In 1997, Ramaphosa moved to the private sector and in 2001 he founded Shanduka, which owned stakes in mining entities, financial institutions, McDonald's South Africa's subsidiaries and Coca-Cola bottling plants.

The events of 16 August 2012, would become a stain on Ramaphosa's political career even though the Marikana Commission of Inquiry cleared him of any wrongdoing. 

At least 34 mine workers were shot dead in Marikana.

said James Motlatsi, Num First President and Co-Founder.

Later that year in Mangaung, he would make his comeback to active politics, disinvesting from all his business interests to avoid any possible conflict of interest.

In a closely contested 2017 ANC elective conference in Nasrec, Ramaphosa would indeed succeed Zuma as ANC leader and the following year would become the number one citizen.

Ramaphosa has a mammoth task ahead of him and will he be able to live up to the high expectations placed on his shoulders?

Read the original article on ENCA.

-JP