Mbeki, Thabo, << uhm BEHK ee,TA boh >> (1942-…), was president of South Africa from 1999 to 2008. He succeeded Nelson Mandela, who retired. Mbeki had been an activist in the African National Congress (ANC), a largely black group that opposed the minority white population’s rule of South Africa. The ANC led a movement that led to the country’s first elections open to all races and first multiracial government in 1994. That same year, Mbeki became deputy president of the nation. Mbeki served as president of the ANC from 1997 to 2007, when he lost the ANC presidency to Jacob Zuma. Mbeki resigned as South Africa’s president in 2008.
Mbeki, whose full name is Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki, was born on June 18, 1942, in Idutywa in the Transkei region of South Africa. His parents were political activists.
From 1962 to 1990, Mbeki lived in exile. He completed a master’s degree in economics at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom in 1966. While living outside South Africa, Mbeki continued to work for the ANC and gain publicity for its cause.
See also African National Congress (ANC) .
