There are many countries in the world and many people in each country, but believe it or not there is a South African presence in the Time 100. Below I have highlighted what I could find:
Marc Shoul for TIME
Cyril Ramaphosa – (born 17 November 1952) is a South African lawyer, trade union leader, activist, politician and businessman. He was born in Soweto, near Johannesburg, in what is now Gauteng province. While Ramaphosa was previously a major figure in South African national politics, he has in recent years become a prominent figure in the business community. (wikipedia)
From the Time 100:
When Nelson Mandela walked out of prison in 1990, Ramaphosa was at the gates. Ramaphosa told me once how Mandela made his final decision on the national flag. After a nationwide contest, a winner was selected, but Mandela was hundreds of miles away. “Fax it to me,” he told Ramaphosa, who protested that the fax would not show the colors, which had been carefully chosen to reflect South Africa’s complex racial composition. “Well, just describe it to me,” Mandela said. “I trust you.” And thus, the unique flag of Africa’s most dynamic nation.
Roger Federer – Federer was born in the town of Binningen (near Basel, Switzerland), to Swiss-German Robert Federer and South African Lynette Federer.
It is a bit of a stretch in the end, but Federer is definitely 50% South African!! I think we can claim that. He has such passion and such an incredible temperament that he must be half Saffa!
From the Time 100:
The most impressive aspect of Roger Federer’s ascendancy to the top of the tennis world is the way he carries himself as a champion. It’s quite unusual. He just lets his racket do the talking.
Nelson Mandela wrote the piece on Oprah Winfrey for the Time 100, which I think is great. One great icon and historical figure to another soon to be historically celebrated figure.
If you have managed to sift through the list of Time 100 people of the year please let me know if you located any more Saffas on the list. I battled to get through the entire list!
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May 16th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
good perspective. I will be backing the fed express to beat rafa today in the ATP Madrid.
January 11th, 2011 at 10:25 am
While I really like this post, I think there was an grammatical error close to the end of the third paragraph.
January 4th, 2012 at 10:32 pm
*Aw, this was a really nice post. In idea I would like to put in writing like this additionally – taking time and actual effort to make a very good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and by no means seem to get something done.