Anna Majavu
Anna Majavu
It's been a long time coming but Trevor Manuel and Maria Ramos finally tied the knot on Saturday.
Finance Minister Manuel and Ramos, his former director-general and the new chief executive of Absa, wed in front of a handful of VIPs, family and friends outside Cape Town on Saturday.
Security guards patrolled the exclusive L'Ormarins estate in Franschoek on quad bikes to keep out the media and potential gatecrashers.
Private security and local police officers guarded the entrance to the wine estate, owned by the Rupert family, and the National Intelligence Agency was also reportedly called in to help with security.
Word got out last week that the couple was planning "a secret wedding" in front of a small group of people. A few days later they released a statement asking the media to respect their privacy and not to attend the wedding.
Though the newlyweds released their wedding photos to the media on Saturday night, Manuel's spokesman, Thoraya Pandy, declined to disclose the guest list, saying "it was a private ceremony so we are not releasing any details about who was there and who did not attend".
Congress of the People staffers could not confirm if deputy president Mbhazima Shilowa had attended the wedding but said Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota was present.
Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni, former education minister Kader Asmal and former tourism and environmental affairs minister Valli Moosa were seen arriving for the elite occasion.
Manuel, 52, and Ramos, 49, met in 1996 when they worked together in the ministry of finance.
Manuel and his wife at the time, Lynne Matthews, separated five years later in 2001 and began divorce proceedings that were finalised last year.
Named bytheFinancial Mail in 2006 as "the twin engines of the South African economy", the two have always refused to discuss their relationship with the media.
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