Kgalema motlanthe biography books

As the Mangaung Conference draws closer, many people have been asking the question, who is Kgalema Motlanthe – what is his background, and what does he stand for?

Ebrahim Harvey presents a superb account of a man characterised by his reticence.

Harvey provides a rare and thorough insight into this most private and yet among the most powerful of men in South Africa. We learn about Motlanthe’s ancestral family and political awakenings as he discovers the ANC. From here we come to understand the importance of his time on Robben Island and the friendships and alliances he formed there, which would later define his political career.

In 1997 he succeeded Cyril Ramaphosa as ANC Secretary General and the mark of this reserved but often courageously independent politician was beginning to be noticed.

Just over 10 years later, Motlanthe had risen to become the third President of the Republic of South Africa, though under exceptional cir