Famous South African Presidents

Cyril Ramaphosa is a politician and the current president of South Africa. Also the president of South Africa's popular political party African National Congress (ANC), Ramaphosa played a key role during the nation's transition to democracy during which he served as ANC's chief negotiator. He also played a crucial role in ending apartheid and was considered Nelson Mandela's political heir.

Jacob Zuma is a South African politician and fourth president of South Africa. During his presidency, which lasted from 2009 to 2018, Zuma was accused of racketeering and corruption which ultimately led to his resignation. Apart from being a politician, Zuma also runs the Jacob Zuma Foundation, which aims at building houses for the poor and sending children to school.

Paul Kruger was a South African politician who served as the last State President of the South African Republic. Revered by his admirers as a tragic folk hero, Kruger was one of the most influential military and political personalities in 19th-century South Africa. His life inspired the 1941 German film Ohm Krüger, in which Kruger was played by Emil Jannings.

South African politician John Vorster had served as both the prime minister and the president of his country. Born to an affluent sheep farmer, he initially practiced law. An apartheid supporter, he was the minister of justice during the Rivonia Trial and was later dragged into the Muldergate Scandal.

Apart from founding Pretoria, Marthinus Wessel Pretorius had also been the president of the South African Republic and of the Orange Free State. The son of the Great Trek leader Andries Pretorius, Marthinus attempted to unite the Boer factions but failed to do so and eventually retired.

Marthinus Theunis Steyn was a South African lawyer, politician, and statesman. As a young man, he studied law at the Inner Temple in London and returned home to set up his practice. He became the sixth and last president of the independent republic the Orange Free State in 1896, a position he held till 1902.  

Known to his followers as Oom Jim, or Uncle Jim, Jacobus Johannes Fouché had served as the president of South Africa. A Nationalist Party MP, he had also served as the minister of defense but failed to lift the embargo on arms supplies that was imposed by the UN.

As a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, Thomas François Burgers questioned the authenticity of the events in the Bible and was even suspended once. As the president of Transvaal, he was infamous for letting the British annex his kingdom. He spent his final days in poverty.