Ramokgopa's formal political career began when he was elected to represent the ANC as a
local councillor in
Tshwane's ward 51, where he served from 2000 to 2005 while also working as a
transport engineer. For the half decade after his resignation as a public representative in 2005, he held a range of positions in public and private entities, first as
chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Trading Company, a public entity under the
City of Johannesburg municipality, from 2004 to 2006. He was also deputy chairperson of the Limpopo Board of Trade and Investment and, from 2006 to 2010, His candidacy for the Regional Chairperson position in 2009 received the support of the regional branch of the ANC Youth League. According to the
Mail & Guardian, Ramokgopa played an important role at the Gauteng ANC's provincial elective conference in May 2010, working with
Nat Kekana to amass support for
Paul Mashatile's successful campaign to be re-elected as ANC
Provincial Chairperson in a contest with
Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane. He succeeded his aunt,
Gwen Ramokgopa, who had left the position to serve as Deputy
Minister of Health under President
Jacob Zuma. Despite predictions that the ANC would lose its majority in Tshwane in the
2011 local government elections, Ramokgopa retained his position in 2011; after his re-election in May, he announced a major
reshuffle of his Mayoral Committee. The
Business Day said that "the largest blight on his legacy" as mayor was a project to roll-out smart prepaid
electricity meters across the city under the Security of Revenue Project, launched in October 2013. The contract to install the meters, awarded to PEU Capital Partners, was challenged in the courts and opposition parties said that it had been awarded irregularly and had cost the city billions of
rands in unnecessary expenditures.
ANC Regional Chairperson While mayor, Ramokgopa retained his post as ANC Regional Chairperson in Tshwane, winning re-election in 2011 and 2014. In 2011, a lobby group – consisting of elements of the
trade unions, the
South African Communist Party (SACP), and the ANC Youth League – sought unsuccessfully to replace him with
Lucky Montana, the chief executive of the
Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa. In 2014, he faced opposition from a larger grouping, including various local business forums and regional structures of the SACP, its Young Communist League, the ANC Youth League, and
Congress of South African Trade Unions. The regional SACP said that it would boycott the 2014 provincial elective conference and instead organised a march on the
Union Buildings, calling for the Tshwane municipality to be put under administration by
the national government. Reports suggested that he had been passed over due to "intense
factional battles" between his supporters and supporters of ANC Deputy Regional Chairperson
Mapiti Matsena, as well as because of concerns about his style of governance and the smart meter contract. In June 2016, tensions about the Tshwane mayoral candidacy rose and peaked when the national ANC announced that it had proposed national politician
Thoko Didiza as the party's candidate to succeed Ramokgopa. During the week after the announcement, at least five people died in
violent protests in Tshwane. Ramokgopa himself was serene about his imminent departure from the mayoral office and expressed his support for Didiza, calling for calm in the city. At political meetings, however, local ANC members opposed to Didiza reportedly demanded his re-election, chanting "No Sputla, no votes". A leading local newspaper, the
Pretoria News, and the
Mail & Guardian both reported that the violence had allegedly been part of a campaign by Ramokgopa's supporters to make Tshwane "ungovernable" after Didiza's nomination. In July 2018, he did not stand for re-election as ANC Regional Chairperson and Kgoši Maepa was elected to succeed him. By then, Ramokgopa was touted as a possible candidate to succeed Paul Mashatile as ANC Provincial Chairperson in Gauteng; one group within the party, reportedly led by
Lebogang Maile, was rumoured to support Ramokgopa over the frontrunner,
David Makhura. At the ANC's provincial elective conference later in July, Ramokgopa was nominated to stand for the chairmanship but declined, winning Makhura to be elected unopposed. Ramokgopa was, however, elected to a four-year term on the
Provincial Executive Committee of the Gauteng ANC and subsequently chaired its subcommittee on economic transformation.
Gauteng Executive Council: 2019 In the
2019 general election, Ramokgopa was elected to a seat in the
Gauteng Provincial Legislature; he was ranked 10th on the
party list of the ANC, which remained the majority party in Gauteng. Shortly after the election, on 29 May, Makhura, as Premier of Gauteng, appointed Ramokgopa to
his Executive Council; he served as
Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Economic Development, Agriculture, and Environment. However, Ramokgopa spent only four-and-a-half months in this position; he resigned on 11 October and was replaced by
Morakane Mosupyoe. His resignation and replacement was largely understood to be related to a directive from the ANC national leadership compelling Makhura to replace one of his six male MECs to improve
gender representation in the Executive Council: the party had decided that 60% of the provincial executive should be female in provinces where the Premier was male. The
Provincial Secretary of the Gauteng ANC,
Jacob Khawe, confirmed this and said that other provincial leaders admired Ramokgopa for volunteering to resign, a decision that the Gauteng ANC viewed as "an act of
revolutionary consciousness that can be a lesson to others".
The Presidency: 2019–2022 In the weeks after Ramokgopa resigned from the Executive Council,
City Press and
News24 reported that the ANC was considering Ramokgopa for
deployment to a range of public offices, including possibly in Premier Makhura's office, at a
state-owned enterprise like
Eskom or
Transnet, or as Deputy
Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy following the death of incumbent
Bavelile Hlongwa. On 4 November 2019, less than a month after Ramokgopa's resignation as MEC, the
Presidency announced that Ramokgopa had been appointed head of the new Investment and Infrastructure Office under President
Cyril Ramaphosa. The office was established to develop and coordinate South Africa's
investment strategy, He retained the position as of 2022 and
Investec described him as "respected and competent". When the ANC held its
55th National Conference in December 2022, Ramokgopa was elected to the party's
National Executive Committee for the first time; by number of votes received, he was ranked 49th of the 80 candidates elected, receiving 1,229 votes across the 4,029 ballots cast in total.
Minister of Electricity and Energy: 2023–present On 6 March 2023, Ramokgopa was appointed
Minister of Electricity and Energy by president
Cyril Ramaphosa. He was sworn into office the following day. After the 2024 election, on 3 July 2024 he was sworn in as the
Minister of Electricity and Energy in the
third cabinet of president Ramaphosa. which, by March 2025, was scheduled to mark the end of load shedding. == Personal life ==