Former MD of the World Bank and ex Vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town
Dr Ramphele was the first woman (and the first black person) to become a University Vice-chancellor in South Africa when she took over the helm of the University of Cape Town in 1996. In 2000, Ramphele became one of the four Managing Directors of the World Bank. She was tasked with overseeing the strategic positioning and operations of the World Bank Institute as well as the Vice-Presidency of External Affairs. She is the first South African to hold this position.
She is a current trustee on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York and the Chairperson of Circle Capital Ventures (SA), a black owned investment company with assets in the health, ICT, and industrial sectors.
Life and Career
Mamphela Aletta Ramphele (28 December 1947 - ) is a South African academic, businesswoman and medical doctor and was an anti-apartheid activist. Ramphele was born near Pietersburg (now Polokwane) in what is now Limpopo province. She completed her schooling at Setotolwane High School in 1966 and subsequently enrolled for pre-medical courses at the University of the North.
In 1968 Ramphele was accepted into the University of Natal’s Medical School (then the only medical university that allowed black students to enroll without prior permission from the government), where she qualified as a medical doctor in 1972.While at university she became increasingly involved in student politics and anti-apartheid activism and was one of the founders of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), along with Steve Biko. As a member of the BCM, she was especially involved in organizing and working with communtity development programmes.
From 1977 to 1984 Dr Ramphele was banished by the apartheid government to Lenyenye near Tzaneen. There she continued her work with the rural poor and established the Ithuseng Community Health Programme. Continuing her academic studies, Ramphele received a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Cape Town, a Bachelor of Commerce degree 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. Ramphele has also authored and edited a number of books.
Ramphele joined the University of Cape Town as a research fellow in 1986 and was appointed as one of its Deputy Vice-Chancellors in 1991. She was appointed to the post of Vice-Chancellor of the university in September 1996, thereby becoming the first black woman to hold such a position at a South African university.
She has received numerous prestigious national and international awards, including three honorary doctorates, acknowledging her scholarship, service to the community, and her leading role in raising development issues and spearheading projects aimed at the upliftment of the most disadvantaged sectors of the community in South Africa.
In 1984 Dr Ramphele received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Hunter College of City of New York, and in May 1991 Tufts University awarded her an Honorary Doctor of Science degree for her professional commitment and devotion to the health and social welfare of the poor in South Africa. She also holds an Honorary Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Natal and a Medal of Distinction from Barnard College in the United States, where she was elected to the Institute of Medicine. A former fellow of the Bunting Institute, she was elected an honorary member of Alpha & Iota Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa at Radcliffe and Harvard Colleges.
In 2000, Ramphele became one of the four Managing Directors of the World Bank. She was tasked with overseeing the strategic positioning and operations of the World Bank Institute as well as the Vice-Presidency of External Affairs. She is the first South African to hold this position. Ramphele has served as a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, as the director of the Institute for a Democratic Alternative for South Africa (IDASA) and as a board member of the Anglo-American Corporation and Transnet. Ramphele also serves as a trustee for The Link SA fund, a charitable organization that raises money to subsidise the tertiary education of South Africa's brightest underprivileged students.
She was voted 55th in the Top 100 Great South Africans in 2004.
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