Kgosientsho “Sputla” Ramokgopa, a civil engineer by training, has been named the new minister of energy of South Africa, as President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Monday, March 6, 2023.
Bio, net worth, age, wife, kids, and qualifications for Kgosientso Ramokgopa
Ramokgopa most recently served as the Presidency’s director of infrastructure and investment. Yet in the early 2000s, he began participating in formal politics by becoming an ANC ward councilor.
Kgosientso Ramokgopa Biography
Kgosientso “Sputla” Ramokgopa, a politician from South Africa, was born on January 25, 1975, and will soon serve as the presidency’s minister of electricity. He served as Tshwane’s mayor from 2010 until 2016.
Kgosientso Ramokgopa presently works for the South African Presidency and was a member of the Executive Council of the Gauteng Province Government in 2019.
Kgosientso Ramokgopa Early Years
On January 25, 1975, Kgosientso David Ramokgopa was born. His ancestors hail from the settlement of Ga-Ramokgopa in the current province of Limpopo.
Kgosientso Ramokgopa graduated from high school in 1991 in Atteridgeville, a township west of Pretoria that is now a part of Gauteng province. As a youngster, he was known by the soccer-playing moniker “Sputla.”
Kgosientso Ramokgopa holds a bachelor’s in civil engineering, master’s degrees in corporate leadership and public administration, and a doctorate in public affairs.
Kgosientso Ramokgopa got interested in politics through the South African Student Congress (SASCO) and the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League while he was a civil engineering student at the University of Durban-Westville.
Kgosientso Ramokgopa Career
Ramokgopa’s official political career began when he was chosen to represent the ANC as a town councilor in Tshwane’s Ward 51, where he worked as a transport engineer from 2000 to 2005. He held a variety of positions in both public and private organizations for half a decade following his resignation as a public representative in 2005.
From 2004 to 2006, he served as the chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Trading Company, a public organization run by the City of Johannesburg municipality.
In addition, he held the positions of chief executive officer of Johannesburg Market from 2006 to 2010 and vice-chairman of the Limpopo Board of Commerce and Investment. He was named 2008 Boss of the Year in the latter role.
Ramokgopa was involved in the province’s ANC at the same time, and by 2010, she was in charge of the party’s sizable regional branch in Tshwane. The local chapter of the ANC Youth League supported his bid for the regional chairperson position in 2009.
The Gauteng ANC’s provincial elective conference took place in May 2010, and Ramokgopa, together with Nat Kekana, were instrumental in building support for Paul Mashatile’s successful bid to retain his position as ANC Provincial Chairperson against Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane.
According to sources who spoke to the newspaper in July 2010, Ramokgopa was a front-runner to be promoted to the role of mayor in part because of his support for Mashatile. But other local ANC leaders reportedly objected, saying he was too young for the position.
In the weeks following Ramokgopa’s resignation from the Executive Council, City Press and News24 reported that the ANC was considering Ramokgopa for deployment to a variety of public positions, including perhaps in Premier Makhura’s office, at a state-owned company like Eskom or Trasnet, or as Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy in the wake of the passing of the post’s current occupant, Bavelile Hlongwa.
On November 4, 2019, the Presidency announced that Ramokgopa had been named the head of the new Investment and Infrastructure Office under President Cyril Ramaphosa, less than a month after his departure as MEC.
Ramokgopa directly answered to the president, and the office’s purpose was to plan and coordinate South Africa’s investment policy. As of 2022, he still held the role, and Investec characterized him as “respected and capable.”
Ramokgopa continued to be active in the ANC as well; however, he was unsuccessful in winning re-election to the Gauteng Provincial Executive Committee at the July 2022 provincial elective conference.
Ramokgopa was elected to the National Executive Committee of the ANC for the first time at the party’s 55th National Conference in December 2022; he received 1,229 votes, placing him 49th out of the 80 elected candidates, out of the 4,029 total ballots cast.
President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Ramokgopa as the presidency’s minister in charge of electricity on March 6, 2023.
Kgosientso Ramokgopa Wife and Children
Late in 2014, Ramokgopa wed Georgia Shekeshe in Atteridgeville after a religious ceremony. They first spoke when Shekeshe worked as Ramokgopa’s personal assistant in his office at the beginning of his mayoral term. They had a son who was two years old at the time of their wedding.
Kgosientso Ramokgopa Net worth
Kgosientso Ramokgopa’s estimated net worth is under review as the time this article was written.