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Economie
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Cyril Ramaphosa. (REUTERS/MIKE HUTCHINGS)
Big man, Big Macs
DES ARCHES EN OR. Cyril Ramaphosa, un ancien leader syndical, combattant de l’apartheid, devenu un homme d’affaires
très influent en Afrique du Sud, a racheté les licences de tous les restaurants McDonald’s sud-africains. Avec ce contrat, il
devient propriétaire de tous les actifs de la chaîne de restauration rapide la plus connue au monde… De quoi lui faire
oublier la politique ?
THE ECONOMIST
Big man, Big Macs
Une huile sud-africaine
chez McDonald’s
township ghetto noir à la périphérie des
grandes villes (en Afrique du Sud) / leading
principal / trade unionist syndicaliste / to
switch changer, ici passer (à).
2. outlet point de vente, magasin, ici restaurant / mandate mission, tâche / to turbocharge mettre le turbo (sur), accélérer
(turbocharger turbocompresseur) / to
struggle lutter / fierce féroce, acharné / homegrown national.
3. lawyer avocat / by training de formation /
union syndicat / to bring, brought, brought
about the end of mettre un terme à / peaceful pacifique /
22 • VOCABLE Du 12 au 25 mai 2011
orn in a black township in 1952, Cyril
Ramaphosa rose to become South
Africa’s leading trade unionist, switching to politics and then to business after the
end of apartheid. He became
one of the country’s richest
men, and is still occasionally
mentioned as a possible future president. Now he is the
face of McDonald’s in
Africa’s biggest economy.
2. Mr Ramaphosa, who once
said his favourite meal was
fish with salad, will own and
run all the American burger giant’s operations in the country, including 132 outlets.
He will have a 20-year franchise and a mandate to “turbocharge” growth. The price of
the deal has not been revealed. Since open-
B
ing its first restaurant in South Africa in
1995, McDonald’s has struggled against fierce
home-grown competition. Famous Brands,
its main rival, has more than 1,100 outlets,
operating under such
names as Steers, Wimpy and
Mugg & Bean.
Mr Ramaphosa has
joined the 31-strong
club of rand
billionaires.
Experience
3. Mr Ramaphosa, a
lawyer by training, founded
the National Union of
Mineworkers, building it up
to become South Africa’s most
powerful union. He helped bring about
apartheid’s peaceful end as one of the African
National Congress’s main negotiators. By the
time he was elected to parliament in the country’s first fully democratic elections in 1994 he
Page 23
CULTURE
SOCIÉTÉ
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The end of Apartheid
Widely respected as a skillful and formidable negotiator and strategist, Ramaphosa is best
known for the crucial role he played, with Roelf
Meyer of the National Party, during the negotiations to bring about a peaceful end to
apartheid and steer the country towards its first
democratic elections in April 1994.
i
Cape Town (DR)
to tip annoncer, pronostiquer / likely probable.
4. to resign démissionner de / connections
relations / skill savoir-faire, talent, habileté
/ to take, took, taken to sthing like a duck
to water se lancer dans qch comme si on
avait fait ça toute sa vie / empowerment prise
de pouvoir, émancipation / mining exploitation(s) minière(s) / property immobilier / to
be worth valoir, représenter / rand unité
monétaire sud-africaine / tycoon magnat.
5. to fall, fell, fallen into s.o.’s lap tomber
tout cuit dans le bec de qn / string kyrielle /
chairmanship présidence / directorship fonctions de directeur ou d’administrateur / advisory board comité consultatif / position poste,
fonction / to serve s.o. in good stead rendre
un grand service, être très utile à qn / to talk
up promouvoir, vanter (les mérites de) / prospects (perspectives d’)avenir.
6. joint restaurant / World Health Organisation OMS (organisation mondiale de la santé)
/ to reckon estimer / overweight en surpoids
/ fat gros, obèse / large ici corpulent, bien
en chair / wife-in-waiting future épouse / big
is beautiful sur le modèle de black is beautiful (mouvement culturel des noirs américains
né dans les années 60 aux Etats-Unis).
Cyril Ramaphosa est l’un des
meilleurs amis de Nelson
Mandela et l’on s’attendait à ce
qu’il devienne président de
l’Afrique du Sud. Aujourd’hui, c’est
un homme d’affaires très influent et il est fier de
prendre la tête de McDonald’s dans ce pays.
was already being tipped as Nelson Mandela’s
likely successor, but he lost out to Thabo Mbeki.
4. He promptly resigned his political posts
and went into business. With his formidable
connections, negotiating skills and charm,
he took to it like a duck to water. He was one
of the first to benefit from the ANC government’s black economic empowerment (BEE)
policies, building an empire in mining, energy, property, banking, insurance and telecoms. With investments said to be worth 1.55
billion rand ($224m), Mr Ramaphosa has
joined the 31-strong club of rand billionaires.
His wife is the sister of Patrice Motsepe, another BEE tycoon and the country’s first
black dollar billionaire.
fast-food joints? The World Health Organisation reckons 62% of the country’s men and
73% of its women are already overweight,
making it one of the fattest countries in the
world. Almost a quarter of men and twofifths of women are obese. But then, as President Jacob Zuma has shown with his three
large wives and one equally large wife-inwaiting, in South Africa big is beautiful. ●
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The food chain
5. Deals like the McDonald’s one seem
to fall into Mr Ramaphosa’s lap. As well as
serving as executive chairman of his own
Shanduka group, he has a string of non-executive chairmanships and directorships of
some of the country’s biggest and bestknown companies, including Bidvest, a giant food-service and distribution business.
He is also a member of Coca-Cola’s international advisory board. Both positions should
serve him in good stead in his new job. Although South Africa’s media continue to talk
up his presidential prospects, he says he has
no interest in returning to politics.
6. Does South Africa really need any more
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