Mamphela Ramphele

In 1944, her father was promoted as headmaster of Stephanus Hofmeyer School.

Ramphele contracted severe whooping cough at the age of three months.

The wife of the local church minister, Dominee Lukas van der Merwe, gave her mother medical advice and bought medicines for the sick child that saved her life.

Mamphela Aletta Ramphele ( born 28 December 1947) is a South African politician, anti-apartheid activist, medical doctor and businesswoman.

She was a partner of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, with whom she had two children.

She is a former vice-chancellor at the University of Cape Town and a former managing director at the World Bank.

In 1955, Ramphele witnessed a conflict between a racist Afrikaner church minister and the people of the village of Kranspoort.

This contributed to her political awakening.

Ramphele attended the G. H. Frantz Secondary School but in January 1962 she left for Bethesda Normal School, a boarding school which was part of the Bethesda teachers training college.

In 1964, she moved to Setotolwane High School for her matriculation where she was one of only two girls in her class.

She completed her schooling at Setotolwane High School in 1966 and subsequently enrolled for pre-medical courses at the University of the North.

Her mother, Rangoato Rahab, and her father, Pitsi Eliphaz Ramphele were primary school teachers.

On completion of her schooling in 1966, in 1967, Ramphele enrolled for pre-medical courses at the University of the North.

In 1968, she was accepted into the University of Natal Medical School, then the only institution that allowed black students to enroll without prior permission from the government.

Her meagre financial resources meant that she was forced to borrow money to travel to the Natal Medical School (now the Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Medical School).

Ramphele won the 1968 South African Jewish Women’s Association Scholarship and the Sir Ernest Oppenheimer Bursary worth about R150 annually for the rest of her years at Medical School.

Ramphele received her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) from the University of Natal, a BComm in Administration from the University of South Africa as well as diplomas in tropical health & hygiene and Public Health from the University of the Witwatersrand.

SASO was formed in 1969 under the leadership of Steve Biko.

From 1970 onwards Ramphele became increasingly drawn into political activism with Biko, Barney Pityana and other student activists at the Medical School.

She was elected the chairperson of the local SASO branch.

Ramphele received her qualification in medicine in 1972.

She began her medical internship at Durban’s King Edward VIII Hospital, later transferring to Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth.

Biko and Ramphele had two children during their affair; Lerato Biko, born in 1974, and Hlumelo Biko, born in 1978.

Lerato contracted fatal pneumonia when she was two months old.

Their son Hlumelo Biko was born after Biko's death.

Ramphele and her son would eventually work together in the Circle Group holding company for their family investments.

Ramphele worked with the South African Students' Organisation (SASO), a breakaway from the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) that operated on English-speaking white campuses.

NUSAS had black and white students as members.

In 1974, Ramphele was charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for being in possession of banned literature.

In 1975, she founded the Zanempilo Community Health Care Centre in Zinyoka, a village outside King William’s Town.

It was one of the first primary health care initiatives outside the public sector in South Africa.

During this time she was also the manager of the Eastern Cape branch of the Black Community Health Programme.

She travelled extensively in the Eastern Cape, organising people to be drawn into community projects.

In 1991 she received her PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cape Town.

Ramphele has also authored and edited a number of books.

While at university, Ramphele became increasingly involved in student politics and anti-apartheid activism, becoming one of the founders of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), where she met Steve Biko, with whom she had a relationship.

As a member of the BCM, she was crucially involved in organising and working with community development programmes.

Ramphele founded political party Agang South Africa in February 2013 but withdrew from politics in July 2014.

Since 2018, she has been the co-president of the Club of Rome

Ramphele, a Mopedi, was born in the Bochum District in Northern Transvaal (now Limpopo).