Who are the Menell Family? EFF question links to Ramaphosa

The life story of South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa cannot be told without the mention of the Menell family, the name the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) recently dragged into the spotlight in their latest feud against the ruling party.

As one of the more vocal opposition parties, the EFF was bound to grab any opportunity to take shots at the government, and such presented itself when party leader Julius Malema took the podium during the red berets’ “Black Lives Matter” march, which headed to the US Embassy on Monday.

It was during his speech where he caught headlines by referring to South Africa’s number 1 as a “bastard”, accusing him of selling the country to the Menell family at the wake of its democracy.

Who are the Menell family? 

Ramaphosa will not have been born when a certain Slip Menell co-founded the Anglovaal Group in 1933. 

The group started off as a mining company but has since branched off into other sectors, such as finance and industry.

The company thrived in the old South Africa and, as the apartheid rule approached its end, founded the Urban Foundation, which focused on, among other things, urban development, housing and education in black townships. 

The foundation advanced the cause of education among black people, among other causes and had perhaps its greatest successes in Ramaphosa, who was in his early 20s when the two connected.

The Cyril Ramaphosa connection 

The Urban Foundation is credited for transforming Ramaphosa from aspiring lawyer to mining magnate.

He was recruited by the foundation in 1977, a year after the Soweto uprisings – which the month of June is dedicated to, following the well-documented student protests.

At the time, Clive Menell headed the gold-mining conglomerate.

The connection with the Menell family brought him closer to what was then South Africa’s biggest workforce, the miners.

It is at the mining industry where he would embark on his journey as a unionist, as he promoted an alternative to potentially violent labour disputes while growing what remains one the largest unions among mineworkers in South Africa – the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

His involvement with the Menell family would – at the dawn of democracy – spawn the new Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).

In his speech on Monday, Malema mentioned how Ramaphosa allegedly sold South Africa out to the family which, according to the EFF’s ideology, equated to giving the country away to its detested white monopoly capital.

This may have been through his close ties with Nelson Mandela, who had earmarked him as his successor prior to the ANC taking up power.