Thabo Mbeki And Democracy

As children on the farm our grandparents let us play with the black kids like little sisters and brothers there was no difference. When we were older my mother taught us to always respect African people as family, and at school it was the same. 

Black children would often call grown-ups by, a man “Oom” and a woman “Tannie”, that is Uncle and Aunt, as has always been the custom among Afrikaners, society had been very strict on this. Not unusual these days white kids would address black men also as Oom and Tannie for a black woman.

“Musadi” is for Ma'm. A father is “Babba”, a grandmother “Magogo” a mother “Mma”, and “Morena” is for Mister, or Sir.

My father taught us that an elderly black man was to be honoured with utmost respect, as for the grey hair and wisdom and was to be addressed as “Madala”.

The  African National Congress

The South African leader Thabo Mbeki as a member of the African National Congress was elected the second president of the democratic Republic of South Africa. 

He had been the deputy president under Nelson Mandela. In December 1997, the ANC conference elected Mbeki unopposed to succeed Mandela as ANC president. In the 1999 general elections the ANC again had an overwhelming victory, Thabo Mbeki was re-elected in 2004 and appointed president for a second term.

Born Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki on 18 June 1942 in Mbewuleni near Queenstown (now Komani), in the Eastern Cape Province, Union of South Africa. He married  Zanele Mbeki in 1974.

In South African History

He was preceded by Nelson Mandela. In office 14 June 1999 – 24 September 2008 was succeeded as president by Jacob Zuma. Mbeki served as President of the African National Congress during 1997 – 2007. In the Government of National Unity Mbeki was in office from 10 May 1994 to 14 June 1999 as deputy president, serving together with FW de Klerk until De Klerk resigned on 30 June 1996.

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Always highly respected as academic and a man of impeccable integrity, was awarded an honorary doctorate in September 1999 by the Rand Afrikaans University (now UJ), as well as from the Glasgow Caledonian University in May 2000.

Dr Mbeki  was inaugurated as Chancellor of the University of South Africa (Unisa) on 27 February 2017.

Mbeki 's character and conduct was thoroughly tested and beyond reproach. A man not easily showing emotion but I remember how overjoyed he was holding high the Rugby World Cup Trophy in 2007.

The vision of an African Renaissance as a vibrant and prosperous peaceful nation of African states that he so believed in, as a very noble ideal and to be revived could of course not achieved in only a few years. While advancing his vision of such an united Africa, as president Mbeki promoted South Africa's successful bid to host the soccer 2010 FIFA World Cup.

His Youth

Thabo Mbeki was born in a small village in the Transkei, he started attending school in 1948, the year that the National Party was elected with a mandate to legislate apartheid.

The Bantu Education Act was implemented towards the end of his school career, and in 1955 he came to the Lovedale Institute, an eminent mission school outside Alice, in the last class which followed the same curriculum as white students. In 1956 he joined the ANC Youth League.

Shortly afterwards at the start of his final year of high school he participated a student strike at Lovedale that resulted in his expulsion, as one of the leaders of a March 1959 boycott of classes, and was summarily expelled from Lovedale. Nevertheless he sat for the matric examinations and obtaining a second-class pass.

In June 1960 Mbeki had moved to Johannesburg where he intended to write the A-level examinations. The ANC had been banned recently after the Sharpeville massacre but Mbeki remained politically active, in exile in the UK he gained a master's degree in economics.

In Exile

Mbeki has been involved in ANC politics since he had joined the youth league, and he was a member of the party's National Executive Committee as from 1975. He left South Africa aged twenty to study at the university of Sussex in England, he also had military training in the Soviet Union. Mbeki was almost three decades in exile abroad.

Holding several positions in the ANC, during the 1970s he undertook missions to Botswana, Swaziland, and Nigeria as an early advocate for and a leader of the diplomatic engagements which led to the negotiations to end Apartheid.

The struggle and the democracy

In 1985 PW Botha declared a State of Emergency, it granted the army and police extensive powers meant to suppress unrest and rebellion, the country was on the brink of civil war.

Mbeki was a member of a delegation that met in secret with members of the South African business community, In 1989 he led the ANC delegation that conducted secret talks with the South African government which together with increasing international economic pressure, boycotts and sanctions, that led to the unbanning of the ANC and other organisations.

He had played a large role in turning the international media against Apartheid, raising the diplomatic profile of the ANC, he was a point of contact for foreign governments and international organisations. also participating in many of the other important negotiations between the ANC and the South African government which eventually led to the democratisation of South Africa.

Presidency

PW Botha's successor as prime minister, FW de Klerk on 2 February 1990 announced that the ANC and other political organisations would be unbanned and political prisoners released, including Nelson Mandela. ANC exiles began to return. After South Africa's first fully democratic elections in 1994 Mbeki was appointed as a national deputy president.

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During his presidency South Africa experienced falling public debt, a narrowing budget deficit, and consistent moderate economic growth. His Pan-Africanism and vision for an “African Renaissance” are central parts of his public image and political identity.

His AIDS policy was universally highly controversial. He has been described as a dissident or a sceptic, expressing doubt that the sickness was a syndrome not due to HIV but instead that immunodeficiency was the indirect result of poverty, and voiced a need to investigate alternate causes of and alternative treatments.

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Mbeki entered into strategic individual relationships with key African leaders, the heads of state representing countries of notably Nigeria, Mozambique, Tanzania and Algeria.

In May 2008 there were xenophobic riots in some South African townships mainly in Gauteng, when South African residents violently attacked migrants from other African countries. At least 62 people died, several hundred were injured and thousands displaced. Mbeki deployed the army to contain the violence.

He was widely criticised for his policy of “quiet diplomacy” on Zimbabwe, for not condemning Robert Mugabe's regime or instituting sanctions, this then in spite of many other peacekeeping commitments during his presidency.

Resignation as National President

In South Africa's 2004 elections the ANC won again with an overwhelming majority of nearly 70 percent and Mbeki was elected to a second term as president of the country.

At the Polokwane conference in December 2007 he was replaced as the ANC president by Jacob Zuma, Mbeki announced that he would resign, his resignation took effect on 25 September 2008.

Despite numerous allegations of illegal conduct Zuma remained very popular within the ANC. Amid charges of corruption Zuma had been dismissed by Mbeki as deputy president of the country in 2005, but in spite of many accusations Zuma remained very popular. Mbeki was in the interim replaced as acting national president by Kgalema Motlanthe who had been elected ANC deputy president at Polokwane.

Cyril Ramaphosa

The current National President is Cyril Ramaphosa, Mbeki canvassed for the ANC in the national elections held on 29 May 2024. The ANC has lost much support in a poor showing, losing their outright majority. Many people are disillusioned in the democracy there has been increasing apathy especially among the youth and alarmingly high levels of unemployment and crime. South Africa again has a government of national unity, GNU, the largest parties being the ANC with only around 40% of votes and the DA (Democratic Alliance) with 30% 

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As President Thabo Mbeki has been characterised as academic and remote, not so much charismatic, but he is also seen as pragmatic, eloquent and rational and known for his sophistication and diplomatic style. A gentleman, a great leader and well worthy of his task.