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Second president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki. Photo by: Antônio Milena/ABr- Wikimedia.

Top 10 Sensational Facts about Thabo Mbeki

Thabo Mbeki (born June 18, 1942 in Idutywa, Transkei [now South Africa]) is a South African politician who served as president from 1999 to 2008.

Mbeki was introduced to politics at a young age by his father, a long time leader in the Eastern Cape African National Congress (ANC), an organization dedicated to the abolition of apartheid in South Africa, who was later imprisoned alongside Nelson Mandela (1964-87).

1. Positions previously held in government

President Mbeki was the Republic of South Africa’s second democratically elected president, serving from 14 June 1999 to September 2008. Prior to that, he served as Executive Deputy President of the Republic from 1994 to 13 June 1999, during President Mandela’s administration.

2. Thabo’s academic achievements

President Mbeki graduated from high school in Lovedale, Alice. As a result of student strikes in 1959, he was expelled from school and forced to continue his studies at home.

He took admissions exams at St John’s High School in Umtata in 1959 and British Advanced level exams between 1960 and 1961. Between 1961 and 1962, he was an external student at the University of London, and in 1966, he earned a Master of Economics degree from the University of Sussex.

3. Thabo Mbeki’s family background

Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki was born on June 18, 1942, in Mbewuleni (meaning “place of seed”), a small village in Transkei’s Idutywa district (now Eastern Cape). His Xhosa middle name, ‘Mvuyelwa,’ means ‘he for whom the people sing.’

His parents were both teachers, activists, and members of the South African Communist Party (CPSA later renamed the SACP). His father, Govan Mbeki, was an active member of the African National Congress (ANC) in the Eastern Cape.

Thabo Mbeki was named after one of his father’s best friends, Thabo Mofutsanyana, a Communist Party leader at the time. Mbeki had two younger brothers, Moeletsi and Jama, as well as an older sister, Linda.

Mbeki’s parents were active in enhancing their community’s conditions and participating in feeding programs for the poor. His mother, MaMofokeng, ran the Goodwill Store, and the family also kept sheep and goats.

4. Mbeki’s early career life

President George W. Bush speaks with President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa on Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at the White House- Wikimedia.

Mbeki, the son of renowned ANC intellectual Govan Mbeki, has been active in ANC politics since 1956, when he joined the ANC Youth League, and has served on the party’s National Executive Committee since 1975.

Born in the Transkei, he left South Africa at the age of twenty to attend university in England, spending nearly three decades in exile before the ANC was unbanned in 1990. He moved up the ranks of the ANC in its information and publicity department and as Oliver Tambo’s protégé, but he was also a skilled diplomat, serving as the ANC’s official representative in several African outposts.

He was an early supporter and leader of the diplomatic engagements that led to the end-of-apartheid deliberations. He was appointed national deputy president following South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994.

In the years since, it has become clear that he is Mandela’s chosen successor, and he was elected unopposed as ANC president in 1997, allowing him to run for president as the ANC’s candidate in the 1999 elections.

5. What did Mbeki achieve as a deputy president?

Mbeki was referred to as a supervisor of the government’s 1996 Development, Work opportunities, and the Distribution of wealth strategy as deputy president, and as president he continued to subscribe to relatively conservative, market-friendly macroeconomic policies. South Africa experienced falling budget deficit, a shrinking public debt, and sustained, modest productivity expansion during his presidency.

Amidst his engagement of multiple social progressive programs and remarkable developments to the black economic empowerment program, critics frequently viewed Mbeki’s economic policies as neoliberal, with insufficient consideration for developmental and redistributive goals.

Mbeki became progressively estranged from the ANC’s left wing, as well as from the leaders of the ANC’s Tripartite Alliance partners, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party, on these premises.

These leftist aspects backed Jacob Zuma over Mbeki in the political feud that escalated after Mbeki removed Zuma from his position as deputy president in 2005.

6. Articles he’s published and studies/Presentations/Awards/Decorations/Bursaries

President Mbeki received an Honorary Doctorate from the Rand Afrikaans University on September 17, 1999; an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Glasgow Caledonian University on May 19, 2000; and a nomination for Newsmaker of the Year from the Pretoria Press Club on August 22, 2000.

Former President Thabo Mbeki was named 2012 African of the Year on November 9, 2012, for his efforts in mediating between North and South Sudan. The Daily Trust newspaper in Abuja, Nigeria, bestows the award.

7. Mbeki’s policies on HIV/AIDS during his presidency

Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa, captured during the Opening Plenary of the World Economic Forum on Africa 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa, June 4, 2008. Photo by: World Economic Forum- Wikimedia.

Mbeki’s HIV/AIDS strategy was also highly divisive around the world. His administration did not implement a national mother-to-child transmission prevention program until 2002, as required by the Constitutional Court, nor did it make antiretroviral therapy available in the public healthcare system until late 2003.

According to subsequent research, these delays resulted in hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths.  Mbeki, like his Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, has been labeled an AIDS denier, “dissenter,” or skeptic.

Although he did not explicitly deny the causal link between HIV and AIDS, he commonly advocated for further research into innovative causes and treatments for AIDS, commonly implying that disease was an implicit causes of poverty.

8. Mbeki’s fall from power

Mbeki was severely chastised for his apparent complacency regarding Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe’s, rule. Critics argued that instead of “quiet diplomacy,” Mbeki should have taken a tougher stance against Mugabe, who violently suppressed opposition to his regime and expropriated white-owned farms.

The Zimbabwean economy’s crisis had a knock-on effect in South Africa, where thousands of Zimbabweans sought employment and refuge. As per some, the invasion has resulted in an increase in crime and a housing shortage.

In May 2008, a series of xenophobic attacks occurred as a result of the circumstance. Mbeki was accused of failing to recognize the scope of the problem.

9. Mbeki and his replacement

Mbeki’s downfall began in 2005, when he relieved Jacob Zuma of his duties as Deputy President due to his involvement in the corruption scandal. This caused a schism in the ANC between Mbeki’s supporters and Zuma supporters.

Mbeki ran for ANC president again at the ANC conference in Polokwane in December 2007, but lost to Jacob Zuma, who went on to become the ANC’s presidential candidate in the 2009 general election.

Jacob Zuma was cleared of all corruption charges in 2008, prompting the ANC National Executive Committee to ‘recall’ Mbeki. As a result, Mbeki announced his resignation on September 21, 2008.

Mbeki was chosen as the African Union’s lead mediator for resolving the Sudan-South Sudan dispute after stepping down.

10. Thabo Mbeki’s charitable work

President George W. Bush speaks with President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa on Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at the White House- Wikimedia.

The Thabo Mbeki Foundation was established on October 10, 2010, in advance of a three-day summit. Its mission is centered on Mbeki’s signature “African renaissance,” with the aim of boosting Africa’s political, social, economic, and cultural evolution. It debuted alongside the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute, which aims to develop leaders capable of contributing to the foundation’s goals.