How Ramaphosa pulled the strings and toppled a president

Late on the evening of Feb. 4, Cyril Ramaphosa and the five other top leaders of South Africa's ruling party went to President Jacob Zuma's Cape Dutch colonial-style residence in the capital, Pretoria. They shared a dinner of chicken, rice, oxtail and salad.

The message was less pleasant: It was time for the 75-year-old leader to go. Zuma, in power since…