• South Africa:
• Head of Government

South Africa - Head of Government

HE Mr Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki, President

HE Mr Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is serving his second term in office as President of the Republic of South Africa after being re-elected in the April 2004 general election. He first took office on 14 June 1999. Mr Mbeki is also President of the African National Congress (ANC) after taking over the leadership in 1997.

He is a member of the Steering Committee of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, and was Chairperson of the African Union from July 2002 to July 2003.

Mr Mbeki had previously served as Deputy President in the Government of National

Unity under Nelson Mandela from 1994 to 1999. Mr Mbeki was elected Chairperson of the ANC in 1993.

In the preceding years, Mr Mbeki had participated in negotiations leading to the adoption of the interim Constitution for the new South Africa while he was a member of the ANC’s Executive Committee, and its Political and Military Council. He had also served as the ANC’s Director of Information from 1984 to 1989, and from 1985 as Secretary for Presidential Affairs. Mr Mbeki was Political Secretary in the Office of the ANC President in 1978. He was elected to the ANC’s National Executive Committee in 1975 after serving as the Assistant Secretary of the ANC’s Revolutionary Council in 1971. Mr Mbeki was an activist in Botswana, Swaziland, Nigeria, Zambia and the UK after joining the ANC’s Youth League in 1956.

He has a Master’s degree in economics from the University of Sussex, UK.

Mr Mbeki was born on 18 June 1942 in Idutywa, Transkei, South Africa.