Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki

Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki , 1942-, South African political leader. Mbeki was born into a politically active family; his father, Govan Mbeki, an official with the African National Congress (ANC), was imprisoned (1964) at Robben Island along with Nelson Mandela , released (1987), and became (1994) deputy vice president of the South African senate. Thabo Mbeki joined the ANC in his teens and left Africa illegally at the movement's behest in 1962, studying economics at the Univ. of Sussex (M.A., 1966). He represented the ANC in England (1966-70) and received (1970) military training in the USSR.

Returning to Africa in 1971, he worked with the ANC in exile in Zambia. During the 1970s he traveled throughout Africa for the ANC and became (1978) political secretary to its president, Oliver Tambo. In the 1980s, Mbeki was the ANC's director of information, becoming its director of international affairs in 1989. After South Africa's ban against the ANC was lifted (1990), Mbeki was a key ANC negotiator in the talks that led to the end of apartheid . He was named chairman of the ANC in 1993 and, after the 1994 elections, became South Africa's deputy president.

When South African president Mandela announced (1996) that he was stepping down, Mbeki was Mandela's choice as his successor as leader of the ANC, and he became the country's second postapartheid president after the ANC's landslide win in 1999. He adopted a conservative fiscal policy while denouncing racism in South Africa and calling for affirmative action and economic empowerment for black South Africans. His public questioning of HIV as the cause of AIDS and of the safety of anti-AIDS drugs, however, somewhat diminished his standing abroad and at home. He also has acted as a mediator in a number of conflicts in other African nations. His "quiet diplomacy" between the government and opposition in Zimbabwe, which was slow to bear fruit and came to be regarded as inadequate by many, led to an power-sharing agreement in 2008, but the agreement soon threatened to collapse. Mbeki was elected to a second term in 2004.

Unhappiness with his leadership, which was seen as aloof, and with continued widespread poverty led in 2007 to his loss of the ANC chairmanship to Jacob Zuma , who had been Mbeki's deputy president before he was dismissed in 2005 after being implicated in a corruption case. A judge's suggestion in 2008 that the prosecution of Zuma had been influenced by Mbeki's government led the ANC to call for Mbeki to resign. Although Mbeki denied the accusation and appealed the judge's findings, he resigned (Sept., 2008).

Bibliography: See biography by A. Hadland and J. Rantao (1999).

Mbeki, Thabo Mvuyelwa (b. 18 June 1942). Vice-President of South Africa 1994–8, President 1998–  Son of a former ANC president, he joined the ANC Youth League in 1956. Also a member of the Communist Party, he advanced quickly through its ranks. He went to Britain to study economics at the University of Sussex (1963–6), and then worked for the ANC offices in London, 1967–70. He left to receive military training in the Soviet Union before going to work at the ANC headquarters in Lusaka (Zambia). Becoming a close adviser to ANC President Oliver Tambo, he was ANC spokesperson on foreign affairs, while simultaneously developing contacts with leading figures in White South African society and its business world. ANC chairperson since 1993, the pragmatic moderate was chosen for the pivotal post of first Vice-President to Mandela. With responsibility for the day-to-day running of the government, Mbeki was thus groomed as Mandela's successor. As President, Mbeki tried to promote both a policy of economic growth and moderate public spending and a policy of fighting poverty. Although his personal integrity was beyond reproach, he struggled hard to respond effectively to corruption charges against ministers in his own government. He was also criticized for responding slowly and inadequately to the dramatic spread of HIV/AIDS infections in South Africa.