Inside President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 70th birthday celebrations

President Cyril Ramaphosa commemorates his 70 th birthday.
Image: TWITTER.

When President Cyril Ramaphosa strolled into his hotel suite in Bali on Wednesday, he was amazed to discover a chocolate cake, side plates and a knife on the table, in addition to a waiting delegation of officially dressed personnel led in tune by global relations minister Naledi Pandor.

Ramaphosa, who turned 70 on Thursday, excitedly put his hands together as Happy Birthday deteriorated into chants of “How old are you now?”

In a video shared on Twitter a gushing Ramaphosa states, “Oh my God.”

The pre-birthday events started while Ramaphosa was taking part in the G20 Leaders Summit kept in Bali, Indonesia. He had actually simply completed tape-recording an unique message planned for the Eastern Cape Investment Summit when he discovered individuals in his space.

Presidency representative Vincent Magwenya stated: “When he strolled back in, he was not anticipating to see us. We began singing, and he was blushing a little.”

Ramaphosa then left the space to the top location for the bilateral conversations with other world leaders.

On his method back to South Africa from the top, the governmental jet Inkwazi made a regular drop in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to refuel. This is where another surprise waited for the president.

” Normally when we take a trip on flights longer than 10 hours we stop to refuel, so on our method to Bali the president made a regular drop in Sri Lanka, and the ambassador and personnel served us tea and coffee,” stated Magwenya.

On the flight back, Inkwazi made the very same drop in Sri Lanka to refuel, however the group was stunned when they were ushered into another part of the airport managed by the Sri Lankan Air Force.

” There we were invited by a group of bagpipe gamers, and we believed it was vibrant and fascinating, however we had no concept what awaited us.

” The president of Sri Lanka and other senior authorities from the flying force amazed the president with an incredible supper, hospitality and dance display in honour of his 70 th birthday.”

A square conventional Sri Lankan cake was brought onto the table with conventional Sri Lankan music playing in the background.

” Wow, this boggles the mind!” stated Ramaphosa with open arms.

The Sri Lankan president and other dignitaries then sang for Ramaphosa while a single green candle light was lit. He cut the cake and burnt out the light from the candle light.

” The president did not understand, it was an enjoyable surprise and without a doubt the very best refuelling experience. He was not anticipating such a level of hospitality from the Sri Lankan federal government,” stated Magwenya.

After refuelling, Ramaphosa and his delegation made their method back to South Africa, and when the clock struck midnight on November 17, members of the SA Air Force in the governmental jet highlighted another chocolate cake and sang for the president.

” It was enjoyable since the pilots left the airplane on auto-pilot and came out to sing for the president with all the other personnel.

” He once again took images with the team, and you might see he was blushing, overloaded and delighted in the love and heat revealed from Bali, individuals of Sri Lanka and the Inkwazi team.

” It’s been a beautiful event so far, thinking about the penalizing schedule he has actually had more than the previous number of weeks. Today he is at house, and we hope he will have a terrific rest with his household.”

Despite all the difficulties Ramaphosa is handling, Magwenya stated he stays in “great spirits”.

” The president has a way of simply handling scenarios in a manner that does not discover as unclear and not sure. He remains in great spirits, I believe he is truly going to enjoy his birthday event.”

Ramaphosa, who will invest the rest of Thursday with household, will invest Friday in KwaZulu-Natal, and on Saturday he will continue commemorating his birthday at the Adopt-a-School Foundation‘s back to school celebration raising funds to support schools.

As it marks its 20- year turning point, the structure stated it has actually contributed more than R1.2 bn in more than 640 schools nationally, reaching more than 1.5-million students and more than 38,000 school students and teachers

Reflecting on the program, Ramaphosa stated students from Adopt-a-School were directed on bursaries for tertiary research study, with some signing up with the Cyril Ramaphosa Education Trust.

” The trust stems from the days when I was SG [secretary-general] of the ANC and helped a couple of trainees with bursaries. Throughout the years the trust has actually helped more than 370 trainees and now has 106 trainees on the program,” he stated.

” I am heartened by these and the numerous other effective academic assistance efforts by civil society and non-governmental organisations and the economic sector being carried out throughout the nation. They show active citizenship and the worth of public-private collaborations in the advancement of standard education.”

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