View source for Thabo Mbeki

{{Short description|President of South Africa from 1999 to 2008}}
{{Use South African English|date=July 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix    = [[His Excellency]]
| image               = Thabo Mbeki, August 2023.jpg
| caption             = Mbeki in 2023
| office              = 2nd [[President of South Africa]]
| term_start          = 14 June 1999
| term_end            = 24 September 2008
| deputy              = {{ubl|[[Jacob Zuma]]<br>(1999–2005)|[[Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka]]<br>(2005–2008)}}
| predecessor         = [[Nelson Mandela]]
| successor           = {{ubl|[[Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri]] (acting)|[[Kgalema Motlanthe]]}}
| office1             = [[President of the African National&nbsp;Congress]]
| term_start1         = 20 December 1997
| term_end1           = 18 December 2007
| deputy1             = Jacob Zuma
| predecessor1        = Nelson Mandela
| successor1          = Jacob Zuma
| office2             = [[Deputy President of South Africa]]
| term_start2         = 10 May 1994
| term_end2           = 14 June 1999
| alongside2          = [[F. W. de Klerk]]<br>until 30 June 1996
| president2          = Nelson Mandela
| predecessor2        = [[Alwyn Schlebusch]] {{nowrap|(as [[Vice State President of South Africa|vice state president]])}}
| successor2          = Jacob Zuma
| office3             = [[Deputy President of the African National Congress]]
| term_start3         = 20 December 1994
| term_end3           = 20 December 1997
| president3          = Nelson Mandela
| predecessor3        = [[Walter Sisulu]]
| successor3          = Jacob Zuma
| office4             = [[National Assembly of South Africa|Member of the National Assembly]]
| term_start4         = 9 May 1994
| term_end4           = 20 December 1997
| constituency4       = [[Eastern Cape]]
| office5             = [[National Executive Committee of the African National Congress|National Chairperson of the African National Congress]]
| term_start5         = 24 April 1993
| term_end5           = 20 December 1994
| predecessor5        = [[Oliver Tambo]]
| successor5          = Jacob Zuma
{{collapsed infobox section begin|Additional offices {{nobold|1999{{nbnd}}present}}|titlestyle=border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}
| office6             = [[Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement|Secretary-General of the<br>Non-Aligned Movement]]
| term_start6         = 14 June 1999
| term_end6           = 31 October 2003
| predecessor6        = Nelson Mandela
| successor6          = [[Mahathir Mohamad]]
| office7             = [[Chairperson of the African Union]]
| term_start7         = 9 July 2002
| term_end7           = 10 July 2003
| predecessor7        = ''Office established''
| successor7          = [[Joaquim Chissano]]
| office8             = [[Chancellor of the University of South Africa]]
| term_start8         = 8 December 2016
| term_end8           = 
| 1blankname8         = Vice Chancellor
| 1namedata8          = [[Puleng LenkaBula]]
| predecessor8        = [[Bernard Ngoepe]]
{{collapsed infobox section end}}
| birth_name          = Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
| birth_date          = {{birth date and age|1942|6|18|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Mbewuleni]], [[Union of South Africa|South Africa]]
| death_date          = 
| death_place         = 
| party               = [[African National Congress]]
| otherparty          = [[South African Communist Party]] ([[Tripartite Alliance]])
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[Zanele Dlamini Mbeki|Zanele Dlamini]]|23 November 1974}}
| children            = [[Monwabisi Kwanda Mbeki|Kwanda Mbeki]]
| father              = [[Govan Mbeki]]
| mother              = [[Epainette Mbeki]]
| relatives           = {{unbulleted list|[[Skelewu Mbeki]] (grandfather)|[[Moeletsi Mbeki]] (brother)}}
| alma_mater          = [[University of Sussex]]
| occupation          = {{hlist|Politician|economist|activist}}
| signature           = Thabo Mbeki Signature.svg
}}

'''Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki''' ({{IPA|xh|tʰaɓɔ ʼmbɛːki|lang}}; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician and economist who served as the [[president of South Africa]] from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the [[African National Congress]] (ANC).<ref name="gcis-profile2004">{{cite web|date=14 October 2004|title=Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki, Mr|url=http://www.info.gov.za/leaders/president/index.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070416053536/http://www.info.gov.za/leaders/president/index.htm|archive-date=16 April 2007|access-date=27 November 2007|website=Government Communication and Information System (GCIS)}}</ref> Before that, he was [[Deputy President of South Africa|deputy president]] under [[Nelson Mandela]] from 1994 to 1999.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theafricareport.com/346555/south-africa-three-decades-two-ex-presidents-one-election/ | title=South Africa: Three decades, two ex-presidents, one election }}</ref>

The son of [[Govan Mbeki]], an ANC intellectual, Mbeki has been involved in ANC politics since 1956, when he joined the [[African National Congress Youth League|ANC Youth League]], and has been a member of the party's [[National Executive Committee of the African National Congress|National Executive Committee]] since 1975. Born in the [[Transkei]], he left South Africa aged twenty to attend university in England, and spent almost three decades in exile abroad, until the ANC was unbanned in 1990. He rose through the organisation in its information and publicity section and as [[Oliver Tambo]]'s protégé, but he was also an experienced diplomat, serving as the ANC's official representative in several of its African outposts. He was an early advocate for and leader of the diplomatic engagements which led to the [[Negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa|negotiations to end apartheid]]. After South Africa's [[1994 South African general election|first democratic elections]] in 1994, he was appointed national deputy president. In subsequent years, it became apparent that he was Mandela's chosen successor, and he was elected unopposed as ANC president in 1997, enabling his rise to the presidency as the ANC's candidate in the [[1999 South African general election|1999 elections]].

While deputy president, Mbeki had been regarded as a steward of the government's [[Social welfare programs in South Africa#Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR)|Growth, Employment and Redistribution]] policy, introduced in 1996, and as president he continued to subscribe to relatively conservative, market-friendly macroeconomic policies. During his presidency, South Africa experienced falling [[Government debt|public debt]], a narrowing [[Government budget balance|budget deficit]], and consistent, moderate economic growth. However, despite his retention of various [[Social democracy|social democratic]] programmes, and notable expansions to the [[Black Economic Empowerment|black economic empowerment]] programme, critics often regarded Mbeki's economic policies as [[Neoliberalism|neoliberal]], with insufficient consideration for developmental and redistributive objectives. On these grounds, Mbeki grew increasingly alienated from the left wing of the ANC, and from the leaders of the ANC's [[Tripartite Alliance]] partners, the [[Congress of South African Trade Unions]] and [[South African Communist Party]]. It was these leftist elements which supported [[Jacob Zuma]] over Mbeki in the political rivalry that erupted after Mbeki removed the latter from his post as deputy president in 2005.

As president, Mbeki had an apparent predilection for foreign policy and particularly for [[multilateralism]]. His [[pan-Africanism]] and vision for an "[[African Renaissance|African renaissance]]" are central parts of his political persona, and commentators suggest that he secured for South Africa a role in African and global politics that was disproportionate to the country's size and historical influence.<ref name="Landsberg-2007">{{cite web|last=Landsberg|first=Chris|date=2007-06-18|title=The AU, Nepad and Mbeki's 'progressive African agenda'|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2007-06-18-the-au-nepad-and-mbekis-progressive-african-agenda/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=The Mail & Guardian|language=en-ZA}}</ref><ref name="Olivier-2003">{{Cite journal|last=Olivier|first=Gerrit|date=2003|title=Is Thabo Mbeki Africa's Saviour?|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3569575|journal=International Affairs |volume=79|issue=4|pages=815–828|doi=10.1111/1468-2346.00338|jstor=3569575|issn=0020-5850|url-access=subscription}}</ref> He was the central architect of the [[New Partnership for Africa's Development]] and, as the inaugural chairperson of the [[African Union]], spearheaded the introduction of the [[African Peer Review Mechanism]]. After the [[IBSA Dialogue Forum]] was launched in 2003, his government collaborated with India and Brazil to lobby for reforms at the [[United Nations]], advocating for a stronger role for developing countries. Among South Africa's various [[peacekeeping]] commitments during his presidency, Mbeki was the primary mediator in the conflict between [[ZANU–PF|ZANU-PF]] and the Zimbabwean opposition in the 2000s. However, he was frequently criticised for his policy of "quiet diplomacy" in Zimbabwe, under which he refused to condemn [[Robert Mugabe]]'s regime or institute sanctions against it.

Also highly controversial worldwide was Mbeki's [[HIV/AIDS in South Africa|HIV/AIDS]] policy. His government did not introduce a national [[Vertically transmitted infection|mother-to-child transmission]] prevention programme until 2002, when it was mandated by the [[Constitutional Court of South Africa|Constitutional Court]], nor did it make [[Management of HIV/AIDS|antiretroviral therapy]] available in the public [[Healthcare in South Africa|healthcare system]] until late 2003. Subsequent studies have estimated that these delays caused hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.<ref name="Dugger">{{cite news|author=Dugger, Celia W.|date=25 November 2008|title=Study Cites Toll of AIDS Policy in South Africa|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/world/africa/26aids.html|access-date=23 March 2014|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref name="Nattrass-2008" /><ref name="Chigwedere-2008" /> Mbeki himself, like his Health Minister [[Manto Tshabalala-Msimang]], has been described as an [[HIV/AIDS denialism in South Africa|AIDS denialist]], "dissident", or sceptic. Although he did not explicitly deny the causal link between HIV and AIDS, he often posited a need to investigate alternate causes of and alternative treatments for AIDS, frequently suggesting that [[immunodeficiency]] was the indirect result of poverty.

His political descent began at the ANC's [[52nd National Conference of the African National Congress|Polokwane conference]] in December 2007, when he was replaced as ANC president by Zuma. Although his term as national president was not due to expire until June 2009, he announced on 20 September 2008 that he would resign at the request of the ANC National Executive Committee. The ANC's decision to "recall" Mbeki was understood to be linked to a [[High Court of South Africa|High Court]] judgement, handed down earlier that month, in which judge [[Christopher Robert Nicholson|Chris Nicholson]] had alleged improper political interference in the [[National Prosecuting Authority]] and specifically in the [[Jacob Zuma corruption charges|corruption charges against Zuma]]. Nicholson's judgement was overturned by the [[Supreme Court of Appeal (South Africa)|Supreme Court of Appeal]] in January 2009, by which time Mbeki had been replaced as president by [[Kgalema Motlanthe]].

==Early life and education==

=== 1942–60: Eastern Cape ===
Mbeki was born on 18 June 1942 in [[Mbewuleni]], a small village in the former [[Bantustan|homeland]] of [[Transkei]], now part of the [[Eastern Cape]]. The second of four siblings, he had one sister, Linda (born 1941, died 2003), and two brothers, [[Moeletsi Mbeki|Moeletsi]] (born 1945) and Jama (born 1948, died 1982).<ref name="Gevisser-2007a">{{Cite book|last=Gevisser|first=Mark|title=Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred|date=2007|publisher=Jonathan Ball|isbn=978-1-86842-301-9|location=Johannesburg|oclc=180845990}}</ref>'''{{Rp|page=54}}'''<ref name="Gevisser-2014">{{cite web|last=Gevisser|first=Mark|date=2014-06-07|title=The world of Epainette Mbeki: A mother and a comrade to the end|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2014-06-07-the-world-of-epainette-mbeki/|access-date=2022-02-05|website=The Mail & Guardian|language=en-ZA}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=2003-03-17|title=Mbeki's sister dies at 61|url=https://www.news24.com/news24/mbekis-sister-dies-at-61-20030317|access-date=2022-02-05|website=News24|language=en-US}}</ref> His parents were [[Epainette Mbeki|Epainette]] (died 2014), a trained teacher, and [[Govan Mbeki|Govan]] (died 2001), a shopkeeper, teacher, journalist, and senior activist in the [[African National Congress]] (ANC) and the [[South African Communist Party]] (SACP). Both Epainette and Govan came from educated, [[Christianity|Christian]], land-owning families, and Govan's father was Sikelewu Mbeki, a colonially appointed [[Head-man|headman]].<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=4}}''' The couple had met in [[Durban]], where Epainette had become the second black woman to join the SACP (then still called the Communist Party of South Africa); however, while Mbeki was a child, his family was separated when Govan moved alone to [[Ladismith]] for a teaching job.<ref name="Gevisser-2014" /> Mbeki has said that he was "born into [[Internal resistance to apartheid|the struggle]]", and recalls that his childhood home was decorated with portraits of [[Karl Marx]] and [[Mahatma Gandhi]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=2008-09-19|title=Thabo Mbeki: Born into struggle|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3499695.stm|access-date=2022-02-05}}</ref><ref name="NPR-2007">{{Cite news|date=2007-12-07|title=ANC Leadership Battle Causes Crisis in Party|language=en|work=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16860087|access-date=2022-02-05}}</ref> Govan named him after senior South African communist [[Thabo Edwin Mofutsanyana|Thabo Mofutsanyana]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ejigiri|first=Damien|date=2014|title=Govan Mbeki, Colin Bundy|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/africatoday.60.4.89|journal=Africa Today|volume=60|issue=4|pages=89–91|doi=10.2979/africatoday.60.4.89|jstor=10.2979/africatoday.60.4.89|s2cid=140881911|issn=0001-9887|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
[[File:The_National_Archives_UK_-_CO_1069-214-41-Derivative-01.jpg|left|thumb|220x220px|[[Lovedale (South Africa)|Lovedale]], where Mbeki attended high school, in the 1900s.]]
Mbeki began attending school in 1948, the same year that the [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] was elected with a mandate to legislate [[apartheid]].<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|pages=58–59}}''' The [[Bantu Education Act, 1953|Bantu Education Act]] was implemented towards the end of his school career, and in 1955 he arrived at the [[Lovedale (South Africa)|Lovedale Institute]], an eminent [[mission school]] outside [[Alice, South Africa|Alice]], as part of the last class which would be permitted to follow the same curriculum as white students. At Lovedale, he was a year behind [[Chris Hani]], his future colleague and rival in the ANC.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=95}}''' Mbeki joined the [[African National Congress Youth League|ANC Youth League]] at age fourteen<ref name="NPR-2007" /> and in 1958 became the secretary of its Lovedale branch. Shortly afterwards, at the start of his final year of high school, he was identified as one of the leaders of a March 1959 [[boycott]] of classes, and was summarily expelled from Lovedale.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|pages=101–2}}''' He nonetheless sat for [[Matriculation in South Africa|matric]] examinations and obtained a second-class pass.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|pages=113}}'''

=== 1960–62: Johannesburg ===
In June 1960, Mbeki moved to [[Johannesburg]], where he lived in the home of ANC secretary general [[Duma Nokwe]] and where he intended to sit for [[A-Level|A-level]] examinations. The ANC had recently been banned in the aftermath of the [[Sharpeville massacre]], but Mbeki remained highly politically active, becoming national secretary of the African Students' Association, a new (and short-lived) youth movement envisaged as replacing the now illegal ANC Youth League. It was also during this period that Nokwe recruited Mbeki into the SACP.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|pages=129–48}}'''

Thus the ANC instructed him to join the growing cohort of cadres who were leaving South Africa to evade police attention, receive training, and establish the overt ANC structures that were now illegal inside the country. Mbeki was detained twice by the police while attempting to leave the country, first in [[Rustenburg|Rustenberg]], when the group he was travelling with failed to pass themselves off as a touring football team, and then in [[Southern Rhodesia|Rhodesia]].<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|pages=169–70}}''' He arrived at the ANC's new headquarters in [[Dar es Salaam]], Tanzania, in November 1962, and left shortly afterwards for England.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|pages=174–75}}'''

== Exile and early career ==
[[File:Govanmbekimugshot.jpg|thumb|231x231px|[[Govan Mbeki]] during the raid on [[Liliesleaf Farm]], July 1963.]]

=== 1962–69: England ===
While at Sussex, Mbeki was involved in ANC work and in broader organising for the English [[Anti-Apartheid Movement]]. Months after his arrival, his father was arrested during a [[Security Branch (South Africa)|Security Branch]] raid at [[Liliesleaf Farm]] in July 1963. During the ensuing [[Rivonia Trial]], Mbeki appeared before the [[United Nations]] (UN) [[UN Special Committee on Apartheid|Special Committee on Apartheid]] and later led a student march from Brighton to London, a distance of fifty miles.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|pages=202–12}}''' At the conclusion of the trial, Govan and seven other ANC leaders, among them [[Nelson Mandela]] and [[Walter Sisulu]], were sentenced to [[life imprisonment]].

Mbeki completed his bachelor's degree in economics in May 1965 but, at the exhortation of [[Oliver Tambo|O. R. Tambo]], enrolled for a Master's in economics and [[Economic development|development]] instead of returning to Africa to join [[UMkhonto we Sizwe|Umkhonto we Sizwe]] (MK), the ANC's armed wing. His Master's dissertation was in [[economic geography]].<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|pages=198, 223}}''' In addition to this and his political organising, he developed a deep fondness for [[W. B. Yeats|Yeats]], [[Bertolt Brecht|Brecht]], [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], and [[Blues|blues music]].<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|pages=|page=195}}'''After completing his Master's, in October 1966 he moved to London to work full-time for the [[propaganda]] section of the ANC's English headquarters.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|pages=|page=251}}'''He remained active in the SACP, which was very closely allied to the ANC, and in 1967 he was appointed to the editorial board of its official magazine, the ''[[African Communist]]''.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|pages=|page=221}}'''

Throughout his time in England, Mbeki was the ward of O. R. Tambo and his wife [[Adelaide Tambo]] – in the absence of his parents, it was Adelaide and senior communist [[Michael Harmel]] who attended Mbeki's graduation ceremony in 1965.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|pages=|page=218}}''' O. R. Tambo later became the ANC's longest-serving president, and he acted as Mbeki's "political mentor and patron" until his death in 1993. Other friends Mbeki made in England, including [[Ronnie Kasrils]] and brothers [[Essop Pahad]] and [[Aziz Pahad]], were also among his key political allies in his later career.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|pages=166, 181, 221–22}}'''

=== 1969–71: Soviet Union ===
In February 1969, Mbeki was sent to [[Moscow]] in the [[Soviet Union]] to receive [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] political and ideological training – a fairly common practice, and even a rite of passage, among young people identified as belonging to the future generation of ANC and SACP political leaders. He was educated at the [[Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute|Lenin Institute]], where, because of the secrecy required, he went by the alias "Jack Fortune".<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|pages=266–71}}''' He excelled at the institute and in June 1970 was appointed to the [[Central Committee of the South African Communist Party|Central Committee]] of the SACP, alongside Chris Hani.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=277}}''' The last part of his training entailed military training, also a rite of passage, including in intelligence, [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] tactics, and weaponry. However, his biographer [[Mark Gevisser]] adduces that he was "not the ideal candidate for military life", and [[Max Sisulu]], who trained alongside him, says that he always regarded Mbeki as better suited to political leadership than military leadership.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|pages=278–80}}'''

=== 1971–75: Lusaka ===
In April 1971, having been pulled out from military training, Mbeki was sent to [[Lusaka]], Zambia, where the ANC-in-exile had set up its new headquarters under acting president Tambo. He was to fill the post of administrative secretary to the ANC [[National Executive Committee of the African National Congress#Revolutionary Council|Revolutionary Council]], a body newly established to coordinate the political and military efforts of the ANC and SACP.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=289}}''' He was later moved to the propaganda section, but continued to attend the council's meetings, and in 1975 he (again alongside Hani) was elected onto the ANC's top decision-making organ, the [[National Executive Committee of the African National Congress|National Executive Committee]].<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=296, 317}}''' It was during this period that he began to [[Ghostwriter|ghostwrite]] some of Tambo's speeches and reports, and he accompanied Tambo on important occasions, such as to the infamous December 1972 meeting with [[Mangosuthu Buthelezi]], the head of [[Inkatha Freedom Party|Inkatha]], in London.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=|pages=327, 415}}''' In 1973, he helped to establish the ANC's office in Botswana, considered a "frontline" country because of its shared border with South Africa, where the ANC was attempting to re-establish its underground.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=317}}''' However, although he travelled frequently in subsequent years, the ANC's Lusaka headquarters remained his central base.
[[File:MoeletsiMbeki1978Amsterdam.jpg|thumb|215x215px|Mbeki's brother [[Moeletsi Mbeki|Moeletsi]] in [[Amsterdam]] in 1978, accepting an award on behalf of their father. The banner calls for Govan's release.]]

=== 1975–76: Swaziland ===
Between 1975 and 1976, Mbeki was instrumental in establishing the ANC's frontline base in Swaziland. He was first sent there to assess the political landscape in January 1975, under the cover of attending a UN conference. As part of this reconnaissance trip, he and his colleague Max Sisulu spent time with [[S'bu Ndebele]], Max's sister [[Lindiwe Sisulu]], and their associates in the [[Black Consciousness Movement|Black Consciousness movement]], which at the time was ascendent in neighbouring South Africa.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=|pages=314–15}}''' Mbeki made a positive report to the ANC executive, and he was sent back to Swaziland to begin establishing the base. In Swaziland, he lived at Stanley Mabizela's family home in [[Manzini, Eswatini|Manzini]]. Working with Albert Dhlomo, Mbeki was responsible for helping to re-establish underground ANC networks in the South African provinces of [[Natal (province)|Natal]] and [[Transvaal (province)|Transvaal]], which shared a border with Swaziland. His counterpart inside South Africa was MK operative [[Jacob Zuma]], who ran the Natal underground. According to Gevisser, the pair developed "an unlikely rapport".<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=|pages=343–345}}''' Mbeki was also responsible for recruiting new MK operatives, for liaising with South African student and labour activists, and for liaising with Inkatha, which was becoming dominant in Natal.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=|pages=316–17, 343–45}}'''

However, still another part of his duties was to act as the ANC's official representative in the country, and to maintain good diplomatic relations with the Swazi government. In March 1976, the government discovered that Mbeki was involved in military activity inside Swaziland, and he and Dhlomo – as well as Zuma, who was in the country illegally – were detained and then [[Deportation|deported]], though they managed to negotiate their deportation to the neutral territory of Mozambique rather than to South Africa.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=|pages=341–43}}''' Mbeki's management of the Swaziland base later became a point of contention between him and [[Mac Maharaj]], with whom his relationship has remained acrimonious decades later. In 1978, Maharaj and Mbeki argued at a top-level strategic meeting in [[Luanda]], Angola, when Maharaj, who had been tasked with running the political underground, claimed that Mbeki's records from the Swaziland office were in fact "just an empty folder".<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=|pages=348–49}}'''

=== 1976–78: Nigeria ===
After being deported, Mbeki returned to Lusaka, where he was made Duma Nokwe's deputy in the ANC's Department of Information and Propaganda (DIP). In January 1977, he was posted to [[Lagos]], Nigeria, where he was to be – as in Swaziland – the ANC's first representative to the country. Although there was some debate about whether the appointment was a signal that he had been sidelined, Gevisser says that Mbeki performed well in Lagos, establishing good relations with [[Olusegun Obasanjo]]'s regime and establishing an ANC presence to eclipse that of its rival [[Pan Africanist Congress of Azania|Pan Africanist Congress]] (PAC).<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=|pages=370–71, 384–85}}'''

=== 1978–80: Political secretary ===
When he returned to Lusaka from Lagos in 1978, he was promoted again: he replaced Nokwe as head of DIP, and simultaneously was appointed Tambo's political secretary, an extremely influential position in which he became one of Tambo's closest advisors and confidantes. He also continued to ghostwrite for Tambo, now in a formal capacity.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=|pages=385, 415}}''' At DIP, his approach was encapsulated by the change he made to the department's name, replacing "propaganda" with "publicity". He eschewed the secrecy of earlier years and openly gave interviews and access to American journalists, to the disapproval of some hardline communists. According to various sources, he was responsible for reforming the public image of the ANC from that of a [[Terrorism|terrorist]] organisation to that of a "government-in-waiting".<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=|pages=394}}'''<ref>{{cite web|last=McGreal|first=Chris|date=1999-06-18|title=The great persuader steps out of Mandela's shadow|url=https://mg.co.za/article/1999-06-18-the-great-persuader-steps-out-of/|access-date=2022-02-05|website=The Mail & Guardian|language=en-ZA}}</ref>

{{Quote box
| quote = When I look at Thabo, I look at my husband's son. Physically, they bear a striking resemblance... They are both perfectionists, but without the intolerance that comes from many who share that quality. They are loyal and true. They are their own harshest critics. They both have the gift to draw people to them... They were [[soul mates]], different generations fusing at that particular time.
| source = — [[Adelaide Tambo]] reflects on Mbeki's relationship with [[O. R. Tambo]], June 2002<ref name="Gevisser-2007a"/>{{Rp|pages=222}}
| align = left
| width = 24%
}}He established some of his own high-level intelligence networks, with key underground operatives reporting directly to him, and Gevisser claims that these led to the initiation of relationships with many of the domestic activists who later became his political allies. Moreover, he was responsible for innovating some of the vocabulary which became emblematic of the 1980s anti-apartheid struggle, which burgeoned in the aftermath of the [[Soweto uprising|1976 Soweto uprising]]. Such phrases as "mass democratic movement", "people's power", and the exhortation to "[[make the country ungovernable]]" are attributed to Mbeki, and gained widespread popularity inside South Africa through [[Radio Freedom]] broadcasts written by DIP or by Mbeki personally.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=|pages=414, 420}}''' Zuma has said that it was Mbeki's "drafting skills" which enabled his ascendancy in the ANC and ultimately to the presidency.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=|pages=415}}'''

In 1980, Mbeki led the ANC's delegation to Zimbabwe, where the party hoped to establish relations with [[Robert Mugabe]]'s newly elected government. This was a sensitive mission, because the ANC had historically been strongly allied to the [[Zimbabwe African People's Union]], the arch rival of Mugabe's [[ZANU–PF|ZANU-PF]]. Working primarily through Mugabe's righthand man, future Zimbabwean president [[Emmerson Mnangagwa]], Mbeki negotiated an extraordinarily congenial agreement between ZANU-PF and the ANC. The agreement allowed the ANC to open an office in Zimbabwe and to move MK weapons and cadres over Zimbabwean borders; moreover, it committed the Zimbabwean military to assisting the ANC, and the government to providing MK cadres with Zimbabwean identity documents.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a" />'''{{Rp|page=|pages=434–36}}''' However, Mbeki handed the running of the [[Harare|Salisbury]] office over to another ANC official, and the deal later collapsed.

=== 1980s: Negotiations ===
{{BLP sources section|date=January 2024}}

In 1985, [[PW Botha]] declared a State of Emergency and gave the army and police special powers. In 1986, the South African Army sent a captain in the South African Defence Force (SADF) to kill Mbeki. The plan was to put a bomb in his house in Lusaka, but the assassin was arrested by the Zambian police before he could go through with the plan.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/24-03-2019/ex-pat-south-africans-need-to-stop-pedalling-the-myth-of-white-genocide |title=NZ's South African community needs to stop peddling the myth of white genocide |author=Ross Webb |date=2019-03-24 |publisher=[[The Spinoff]] }}</ref> Also in 1985, Mbeki became the ANC's director of the Department of Information and Publicity and coordinated diplomatic campaigns to involve more white South Africans in anti-apartheid activities. In 1989, he rose in the ranks to head the ANC's Department of International Affairs and was involved in the ANC's negotiations with the South African government. Mbeki played a major role in turning the international media against apartheid. Raising the diplomatic profile of the ANC, Mbeki acted as a point of contact for foreign governments and international organisations and he was extremely successful in this position. Mbeki also played the role of ambassador to the steady flow of delegates from the elite sectors of white South Africa. These included academics, clerics, business people and representatives of liberal white groups who travelled to Lusaka to assess the ANC's views on a democratic, free South Africa.

Mbeki was seen as pragmatic, eloquent, rational, and urbane. He was known for his diplomatic style and sophistication. In the early 1980s, Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and [[Aziz Pahad]] were appointed by Tambo to conduct private talks with representatives of the [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] government. Twelve meetings between the parties took place between November 1987 and May 1990, most of them held at [[Mells Park House]], a country house near [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] in Somerset, [[England]].  By September 1989, the team secretly met with Maritz Spaarwater and [[Mike Louw]] in a hotel in [[Switzerland]]. Known as "Operation Flair", [[PW Botha]] was kept informed of all the meetings. At the same time, Mandela and [[Kobie Coetzee]], the Minister of Justice, were also holding secret talks. When Mbeki finally was able to return home to South Africa and was reunited with his own father, the elder Mbeki told a reporter, "You must remember that Thabo Mbeki is no longer my son. He is my comrade!" A news article pointed out that this was an expression of pride, explaining, "For Govan Mbeki, a son was a mere biological appendage; to be called a comrade, on the other hand, was the highest honour."<ref name="govan">{{cite web|last=Gevisser|first=Mark|year=2001|title=ANC was his family, the struggle was his life|url=http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/people/gmbeki/docs/suntimes_020901.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061001104212/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/people/gmbeki/docs/suntimes_020901.htm|archive-date=1 October 2006|access-date=22 November 2006|work=Sunday Times}}</ref>

In the late 1970s, Mbeki made a number of trips to the United States in search of support among US corporations. Literate and funny, he made a wide circle of friends in New York City. Mbeki was appointed head of the ANC's information department in 1984 and then became head of the international department in 1989, reporting directly to [[Oliver Tambo]], then President of the ANC. Tambo was Mbeki's long-time mentor. In 1985, Mbeki was a member of a delegation that began meeting secretly with representatives of the South African business community, and in 1989, he led the ANC delegation that conducted secret talks with the South African government. These talks led to the unbanning of the ANC and the release of political prisoners. He also participated in many of the other important [[Negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa|negotiations]] between the ANC and the government that eventually led to the democratisation of South Africa.<ref name="anc-bio1996">{{cite web|author=Office of the Deputy Executive President|date=13 September 1996|title=Biography of Thabo Mbeki|url=http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/bio/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070711183712/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/bio/|archive-date=11 July 2007|access-date=21 July 2007|publisher=ANC}}</ref>  As a sign of goodwill, de Klerk set free a few of the ANC's top leadership at the end of 1989, among them [[Govan Mbeki]].

== Rise to the presidency ==
On 2 February 1990, Botha's successor as state president, [[F. W. de Klerk]], announced that the ANC and other political organisations would be unbanned, and ANC exiles began to return to South Africa. At the same time that it was to [[Negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa|negotiate the end of apartheid]], the ANC had to implement a significant internal reorganisation, absorbing into its official exile bodies the domestic ANC underground, released political prisoners, and other activists from the trade unions and the [[United Democratic Front (South Africa)|United Democratic Front]]. It also had an ageing leadership, meaning that a new generation of leaders had to be prepared for succession.<ref name="Lodge-1993">{{Cite journal|last=Lodge|first=Tom|date=1993|title=Thabo Mbeki and Cyril Ramaphosa: Crown Princes to Nelson Mandela's Throne|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40209320|journal=World Policy Journal|volume=10|issue=3|pages=65–71|jstor=40209320|issn=0740-2775}}</ref>

=== 1993: ANC chairperson ===
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mbeki's key role in the early negotiations made him a likely contender for top leadership positions in the party, and he was even considered to be in line for the ANC presidency.<ref name="Lodge-1993" /> However, at the ANC's [[48th National Conference of the African National Congress|48th National Conference]] in July 1991, its first [[National Conference of the African National Congress|national elective conference]] since 1960, Mbeki was not elected to any of the "Top Six" leadership positions. Sisulu was elected ANC deputy president, almost certainly as a compromise candidate, and trade unionist [[Cyril Ramaphosa]] was elected secretary general.<ref name="ANC-1997">{{Cite book|author=African National Congress|url=https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/hrvtrans/submit/anc2.htm#Appendix%201|title=Further submissions and responses by the African National Congress to questions raised by the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation|publisher=Department of Justice|year=1997|location=Pretoria|chapter=Appendix: ANC structures and personnel}}</ref> According to historian Tom Lodge, Ramaphosa's election was a putsch carried out by the party's "internal wing", in defiance of the former exiles and political prisoners who had hitherto dominated the ANC's leadership.<ref name="Lodge-1993" /> Over the next three years, Ramaphosa also came to eclipse Mbeki as the party's central negotiator when he, not Mbeki, was appointed to lead the ANC's delegation to the [[Codesa|CODESA]] talks. Once SACP leader [[Chris Hani]] was assassinated in April 1993, Ramaphosa became Mbeki's primary competition in the ANC succession battle.<ref name="Lodge-1993" /> When Tambo died later the same month, Mbeki succeeded him as ANC national chairperson.<ref name="ANC-1997" />

=== 1994: Deputy president ===
{{Quote box
| quote = Well, I don't imagine that there's any such requirement. I mean, he's got very big feet. The shoes will be too big. What does that mean? Does it mean we start off by going to jail for 27 years and then sort of graduate from there, grow taller, wear strange shirts? It's not a rational expectation.
| source = — Mbeki in 1997, on filling Mandela's shoes<ref name="shoes">{{cite web|last=Murphy|first=Dean E.|date=1997-12-18|title=Handpicked Mbeki Replaces Mandela in ANC|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-dec-18-mn-65484-story.html|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}</ref>
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Following the [[1994 South African general election|1994 elections]], South Africa's first under [[universal suffrage]], Mbeki became one of the two national [[Deputy President of South Africa|deputy presidents]] in the ANC-led [[Cabinet of Nelson Mandela|Government of National Unity]], in which Mandela was president. At the ANC's [[49th National Conference of the African National Congress|next national conference]], held in December that year, Mbeki was elected unopposed to the ANC deputy presidency, also under Mandela.<ref name="ANC-2021">{{cite web|title=49th National Conference: National Executive Committee as elected at Conference|url=https://www.anc1912.org.za/49th-national-conference-national-executive-committee-as-elected-at-conference/|access-date=2021-12-04|website=ANC|language=en-US}}</ref> In June 1996, the [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] withdrew from the Government of National Unity and, with the second deputy, de Klerk, having thereby resigned, Mbeki became the sole deputy president.<ref>{{cite news|date=1996-05-10|title=South Africa shaken by sudden resignation of de Klerk's party|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/south-africa-shaken-by-sudden-resignation-of-de-klerk-s-party-1.47572|access-date=2022-02-04|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en}}</ref>

The same year, as deputy president, Mbeki acted as a peace broker in what was then known as [[Zaire]], following the [[First Congo War]] and the deposition of Zairean president [[Mobutu Sese Seko]].'''<ref name="Ozkan-2013">{{Cite journal|last=Ozkan|first=Mehmet|date=2013|title=When a Giant became a 'Reluctant Peacekeeper': South Africa and Peacekeeping Operations between 1994–2003|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0975087813515980|journal=Insight on Africa|volume=5|issue=2|pages=129–138|doi=10.1177/0975087813515980|s2cid=153939580|issn=0975-0878|url-access=subscription}}</ref>''' Mbeki also took on increasing domestic responsibilities, including executive powers delegated to him by Mandela, to such an extent that Mandela called him "a ''de facto'' president".<ref name="Lodge-2006">{{Cite book|last=Lodge|first=Tom|title=Mandela : a critical life|date=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-151723-5|location=Oxford|page=211|oclc=99996633}}</ref><ref name="Mandela.org-1997">{{cite web|title=1997 Conference, leadership dynamics and Presidential transition|url=https://tpy.nelsonmandela.org/pages/part-vi-anc-and-the-transition/17-anc-and-the-transition/17-7-1997-conference-leadership-dynamics-and-presidential-transition|access-date=2021-12-10|website=Nelson Mandela: The Presidential Years|language=en-us}}</ref> Mandela had made it clear publicly since early 1995 or earlier that he intended to retire after one term in office, and by then Mbeki was already seen as his most likely successor.<ref name="Gregson-1995">{{cite news|date=1995-02-16|title=Mandela says he will not stand a second term|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/mandela-says-he-will-not-stand-a-second-term-1573289.html|access-date=2021-12-11|first=Peter|last=Gregson|newspaper=The Independent|language=en}}</ref>

=== 1997: ANC president ===
{{Main|50th National Conference of the African National Congress}}
In December 1997, the ANC's [[50th National Conference of the African National Congress|50th National Conference]] elected Mbeki unopposed to succeed Mandela as ANC president. On some accounts, the election was not contested because the top leadership had prepared assiduously for the conference, lobbying and negotiating on Mbeki's behalf in the interest of unity and continuity.<ref name="Booysen-2011a">{{Cite book|last=Booysen|first=Susan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E-xWuwEACAAJ&q=susan+booysen+african+national+congress|title=The African National Congress and the Regeneration of Political Power|date=2011|publisher=Wits University Press|isbn=978-1-77614-166-1|language=en|chapter=State institutions as sites of struggle in ANC war}}</ref><ref name="Lodge-1998">{{Cite journal|last=Lodge|first=Tom|date=1998|title=The ANC's 50th Conference: A House of Many Mansions?|url=http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=3806|url-status=dead|journal=Southern Africa Report|volume=13|issue=2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714201659/http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=3806|archive-date=2014-07-14}}</ref><ref name="shoes"/><ref>{{Cite news|date=1997-07-31|title=After Mandela|newspaper=The Economist|url=https://www.economist.com/international/1997/07/31/after-mandela|access-date=2022-02-04|issn=0013-0613}}</ref> Pursuant to the [[1999 South African general election|1999 national elections]], which the ANC won by a significant majority, Mbeki was elected [[president of South Africa]]. He was re-elected for a second term in 2002.

== Presidency of South Africa ==
{{Quote box
| quote = Ours is a capitalist society. It is therefore inevitable that, in part – and I repeat, in part – we must address this goal of deracialisation within the context of the property relations characteristic [of] a capitalist economy.
| source = — Mbeki in 1999<ref name="Herbst-2005">{{Cite journal|last=Herbst|first=Jeffrey|date=2005|title=Mbeki's South Africa|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20031779|journal=Foreign Affairs|volume=84|issue=6|pages=93–105|doi=10.2307/20031779|jstor=20031779|issn=0015-7120|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
| align = right
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=== Economic policy ===
Mbeki had been highly involved in economic policy as deputy president, especially in spearheading the [[Social welfare programs in South Africa#Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR)|Growth, Employment and Redistribution]] (GEAR) programme, which was introduced in 1996 and remained a cornerstone of Mbeki's administration after 1999.<ref name="Bond-2004">{{cite magazine|author=Bond|first=Patrick|date=2004-03-01|title=From Racial to Class Apartheid: South Africa's Frustrating Decade of Freedom|url=http://www.monthlyreview.org/0304bond.htm|magazine=Monthly Review|access-date=15 July 2008}}</ref><ref name="Webster-2020">{{Cite journal|last=Webster|first=Edward|date=2020-06-01|title=Inequality, the pitfalls, and the promise of liberation in Africa|url=https://journals.co.za/doi/10.10520/EJC-1d05fb84b1|journal=African Review of Economics and Finance|volume=12|issue=1|pages=293–298|hdl=10520/EJC-1d05fb84b1}}</ref><ref name="Vale-2009">{{Cite journal|last1=Vale|first1=Peter|last2=Barrett|first2=Georgina|date=2009-12-01|title=The curious career of an African modernizer: South Africa's Thabo Mbeki|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13569770903416521|journal=Contemporary Politics|volume=15|issue=4|pages=445–460|doi=10.1080/13569770903416521|s2cid=144117346|issn=1356-9775|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In comparison to the [[Reconstruction and Development Programme]] policy which had been the basis of the ANC's platform in 1994, GEAR placed less emphasis on developmental and redistributive imperatives, and subscribed to elements of the liberalisation, deregulation, and privatisation at the centre of [[Washington Consensus]]-style reforms.<ref name="Vale-2009" /> It was therefore viewed by some as a "policy reversal" and embrace of [[neoliberalism]], and thus as an abandonment of the ANC's [[Socialism|socialist]] principles.<ref name="Bond-2004" /><ref name="Webster-2020" /><ref name="Vale-2009" /> Mbeki also emphasised communication between government, business, and labour, establishing four working groups – for big business, black business, trade unions, and commercial agriculture – under which ministers, senior officials, and Mbeki himself met regularly with business and union leaders to build trust and explore solutions to structural economic problems.<ref name="Hirsch-2005">{{Cite book|last=Hirsch|first=Alan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Li6ES8l7p0C|title=Season of Hope: Economic Reform Under Mandela and Mbeki|date=2005|publisher=IDRC|isbn=978-1-55250-215-0|language=en}}</ref> [[File:Thabo-mbeki-district-six.jpg|thumb|left|Mbeki speaks to [[District Six]] land claimants in [[Cape Town]], 2001.|240x240px]]

Conservative groups such as the [[Cato Institute]] commended Mbeki's macroeconomic policies, which reduced the [[Deficit spending|budget deficit]] and [[Government debt|public debt]] and which according to them likely played a role in increasing economic growth.<ref>{{cite web|last=Tupy|first=Marian L.|date=2008-09-22|title=Mbeki's Legacy|url=https://www.cato.org/commentary/mbekis-legacy|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Cato Institute}}</ref><ref name="Nolutshungu-2019">{{cite web|last=Nolutshungu|first=Temba A.|date=2019-05-06|title=A tale of two eras: Mandela/Mbeki vs Zuma/Ramaphosa administrations|url=https://www.freemarketfoundation.com/article-view/a-tale-of-two-eras-mandela_mbeki-vs-zuma_ramaphosa-administrations|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Free Market Foundation|language=en|archive-date=4 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220204114821/https://www.freemarketfoundation.com/article-view/a-tale-of-two-eras-mandela_mbeki-vs-zuma_ramaphosa-administrations|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Herbst-2005"/> According to the [[Free Market Foundation]], during the Mbeki presidency, average annualised quarter-on-quarter GDP growth was 4.2%, and average annual inflation was 5.7%.<ref name="Nolutshungu-2019" /> On the other hand, the shift alienated leftists, including inside in the ANC and its [[Tripartite Alliance]].<ref name="Vale-2009" /> [[Zwelinzima Vavi]] of the [[Congress of South African Trade Unions]] (COSATU) was an outspoken critic of Mbeki's "market-friendly" economic policies, claiming that Mbeki's "flirtation" with neoliberalism had been "absolutely disastrous" for development, and especially for the labour-intensive development required to address South Africa's high unemployment rate.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Wallis|first=William|date=2007-12-12|title=Mbeki policies on economy 'disastrous'|work=Financial Times|url=https://www.ft.com/content/04d23130-a8dc-11dc-ad9e-0000779fd2ac |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/04d23130-a8dc-11dc-ad9e-0000779fd2ac |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription|access-date=2022-02-04}}</ref> The discord between Mbeki and the left was on public display by December 2002, when Mbeki attacked what he called divisive "ultra-leftists" in a speech to the ANC's [[51st National Conference of the African National Congress|51st National Conference]].<ref name="Battersby-2002">{{cite web|last=Battersby|first=John|date=2002-12-20|title=ANC gets tough on Reds in its bed|url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/anc-gets-tough-on-reds-in-its-bed-99198|access-date=2021-12-10|website=IOL|language=en}}</ref><ref name="ultraleft">{{cite news|date=2002-12-21|title=Mbeki accuses 'ultra-leftists' of abusing ANC membership|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/mbeki-accuses-ultra-leftists-of-abusing-anc-membership-1.1109299|access-date=2021-12-10|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en}}</ref>

However, Mbeki clearly never subscribed to undiluted neoliberalism. He retained various [[Social democracy|social democratic]] programmes and principles, and generally endorsed a [[mixed economy]] in South Africa.<ref name="Webster-2020" /> One of the ANC's slogans in the campaign for his [[2004 South African general election|2004 re-election]] was, "A people's contract for growth and development."<ref name="Hirsch-2005" /> He popularised the concept of a dual or two-track economy in South Africa, with severe underdevelopment in one segment of the population, and, for example in a 2003 newsletter, argued that high growth alone would only benefit the developed segment, without significant [[Trickle-down economics|trickle-down benefits]] for the rest of the population.<ref name="Hirsch-2005" /><ref>{{cite web|date=2003-10-31|title=Mbeki slams 'neo-liberal' market ideology|url=https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/economy/mbeki-slams-neo-liberal-market-ideology-774741|access-date=2022-02-04|website=IOL|language=en}}</ref> Yet, somewhat paradoxically, he explicitly advocated state support for the creation of a black capitalist class in South Africa.<ref name="Herbst-2005" /> The government's [[Black Economic Empowerment|black economic empowerment]] policy, which was expanded and consolidated under his administration, was criticised precisely for benefitting only a small black elite and thereby failing to address [[Inequality in post-apartheid South Africa|inequality]].<ref name="Vale-2009" />

=== Foreign policy ===
[[File:Thabo mbeki n bush.jpg|thumb|241x241px|Mbeki with American President [[George W. Bush]] at the [[White House]], June 2001.]]
[[File:Putin and Mahathir Mohamad in 2003.jpg|thumb|Mbeki with [[President of Russia|Russian President]] [[Vladimir Putin]], [[Prime Minister of Canada|Canadian Prime Minister]] [[Jean Chrétien]] and the [[Prime Minister of Malaysia|Malaysian Prime Minister]] [[Mahathir Mohamad]] in June 2003.]]
According to academic and diplomat [[Gerrit Olivier]], during his presidency Mbeki "succeeded in placing Africa high on the global agenda."<ref name="Olivier-2003" /> He was known for his [[pan-Africanism]], having emphasised related themes both in his famous "[[I Am an African|I am an African]]" speech in 1996 and in his first speech to [[Parliament]] as president in June 1999, when he foregrounded his trademark ideal of an "[[African Renaissance|African renaissance]]".<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Seedat|first1=Mohamed|last2=Suffla|first2=Shahnaaz|last3=Ndlovu-Gatsheni|first3=Sabelo|date=2021-10-02|title=Mbeki's 'I am an African' Speech: Mobilising Psycho-Political Resources for Political Reconstitution of Post-Apartheid South Africa|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2021.2012754|journal=African Studies|volume=80|issue=3–4|pages=451–465|doi=10.1080/00020184.2021.2012754|hdl=10500/28511 |s2cid=245272023|issn=0002-0184|hdl-access=free|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=1999-06-16|title=Thabo Mbeki's inaugural speech as President of South Africa|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jun/16/southafrica|access-date=2022-02-04|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> He advocated for greater solidarity among African countries and, in place of reliance on Western intervention and aid, for greater self-sufficiency for the African continent. Simultaneously, however, he argued for increased [[Development aid|developmental aid]] to Africa.<ref name="Olivier-2003" /> He called for Western leaders to address [[global apartheid]] and unequal development, most memorably in a speech to the [[Earth Summit 2002|World Summit on Sustainable Development]] in [[Johannesburg]] in August 2002.<ref>{{cite web|date=2002-08-30|title=Earth Summit to act on poverty, environment|url=https://peoplesworld.org/article/earth-summit-to-act-on-poverty-environment/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=People's World|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=2002-08-26|title=Call for unified fight to end global poverty – Edinburgh Evening News|url=http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/latestnews/Call-for-unified-fight-to.2355848.jp|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081228101535/http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/latestnews/Call-for-unified-fight-to.2355848.jp|archive-date=28 December 2008|access-date=15 September 2010|work=The Scotsman}}</ref>

==== Africa ====
Although Mbeki also forged strategic individual relationships with key African leaders, especially the heads of state of Nigeria, Algeria, Mozambique, and Tanzania,<ref name="Landsberg-2007" /> perhaps his central foreign policy instrument was [[Multilateralism|multilateral cooperation]]. Mbeki's government, and Mbeki personally, are frequently cited as the single most significant driving force behind the creation in 2001 of the [[New Partnership for Africa's Development]] (NEPAD), which aims to develop a framework for accelerating economic development and cooperation in Africa.<ref name="Vale-2009" /><ref name="Olivier-2003" /><ref name="Landsberg-2007" /><ref name="Sturman-2004">{{Cite conference|last=Sturman|first=Kathryn|date=November 2004|title=Intervention in Africa? The Mbeki Presidency's role in changing the OAU|url=https://afsaap.org.au/assets/sturman.pdf|conference=African Renewal, African Renaissance: New Perspectives on Africa's Past and Africa's Present}}</ref> Olivier calls Mbeki the "seminal thinker" behind NEPAD and its "principal author and articulator".<ref name="Olivier-2003" /> According to academic Chris Landsberg, NEPAD's central principle – "African leaders holding one another accountable in exchange for the recommitment of the industrialised world to Africa's development" – epitomised Mbeki's strategy in Africa.<ref name="Landsberg-2007" /> Mbeki was also involved in the dissolution of the [[Organisation of African Unity]] and its replacement by the [[African Union]] (AU), of which he became the [[Chairperson of the African Union|inaugural chairperson]] in 2002,<ref>{{cite web|title=AU Chairperson|url=https://au.int/en/cpau|access-date=2022-02-04|website=African Union|archive-date=25 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200425131609/https://au.int/en/cpau|url-status=dead}}</ref> and his government spearheaded the introduction of the AU's [[African Peer Review Mechanism]] in 2003.<ref name="Olivier-2003" /><ref name="Landsberg-2007" /><ref>{{cite web|date=2020-03-27|title=Four Conflict Prevention Opportunities for South Africa's Foreign Policy|url=https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/southern-africa/south-africa/b153-four-conflict-prevention-opportunities-south-africas-foreign-policy|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Crisis Group|language=en}}</ref> He was twice chairperson of the [[Southern African Development Community]] (SADC), first from 1999 to 2000 and second, briefly, in 2008.<ref>{{cite web|title=SADC Chairpersons 1980 – Present|url=https://www.sadc.int/about-sadc/overview/sadc-chairpersons-1980-present/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Southern African Development Community}}</ref> Through these multilateral organisations and by contributing forces to various [[United Nations]] (UN) peacekeeping missions, Mbeki and his government were involved in [[peacekeeping]] initiatives in African countries including Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Burundi.<ref name="Ozkan-2013" />

==== Global South ====
Outside Africa, Mbeki was the chairperson of the [[Non-Aligned Movement]] between 1999 and 2003 and the chairperson of the [[Group of 77]] + China in 2006.<ref name="Olivier-2003" /><ref>{{cite web|date=2006-09-16|title=Mbeki: South-South cooperation essential|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2006-09-16-mbeki-southsouth-cooperation-essential/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=The Mail & Guardian|language=en-ZA}}</ref> He also pursued [[Global South|South]]-South solidarity in a coalition with India and Brazil under the [[IBSA Dialogue Forum]], which was launched in June 2003 and held its first summit in September 2006.<ref name="Flemes-2009">{{Cite journal|last=Flemes|first=Daniel|date=2009|title=India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) in the New Global Order|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/002088171004600402|journal=International Studies|volume=46|issue=4|pages=401–421|doi=10.1177/002088171004600402|s2cid=154503704|issn=0020-8817}}</ref> The IBSA countries together pressed for changes in the agricultural subsidy regimes of developed countries at the [[World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 2003|2003 World Trade Organisation conference]], and also pressed for reforms at the UN which would allow developing countries a stronger role.<ref name="Flemes-2009" /><ref>{{cite web|last=Lauria|first=Joe|date=2005-09-16|title=Mbeki slams tepid response to UN reform|url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/world/mbeki-slams-tepid-response-to-un-reform-253584|access-date=2022-02-04|website=IOL|language=en}}</ref> Indeed, Mbeki had called for reform at the UN as early as 1999 and 2000.<ref>{{cite web|date=1999-09-21|title=Mbeki calls for UN reform|url=https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/1999/09/21/mbeki-calls-un-reform|access-date=2022-02-04|website=The New Humanitarian|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Kassem|first=Youssef|date=2000-11-12|title=Mbeki calls for reform of United Nations|url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/world/mbeki-calls-for-reform-of-united-nations-52885|access-date=2022-02-04|website=IOL}}</ref> [[File:IBSA-leaders.jpg|thumb|Mbeki with Brazilian President [[Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva|Lula da Silva]] and Indian Prime Minister [[Manmohan Singh]] at the second IBSA summit in [[Pretoria]], October 2007.]]In 2007, following a prolonged diplomatic campaign,<ref name="Sturman-2004" /> South Africa secured a non-permanent seat on the [[United Nations Security Council|UN Security Council]] for a two-year term.<ref name="Tryens-Fernandes-2018">{{cite web|date=2018-06-11|title=South Africa Secures Seat on UN Security Council for Third Time|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/11/south-africa-secures-seat-un-security-council-third-time|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Human Rights Watch|language=en}}</ref> Controversially, in February 2007, South Africa followed Russia and China in voting against a draft resolution calling for an end to political detentions and military attacks against ethnic minorities in Myanmar.<ref name="Tryens-Fernandes-2018" /><ref>{{cite web|date=2007-01-12|title=Security Council fails to adopt draft resolution on Myanmar, owing to negative votes by China, Russian Federation|url=https://www.un.org/press/en/2007/sc8939.doc.htm|access-date=2022-02-04|website=United Nations}}</ref> Mbeki later told the media that the resolution exceeded the Security Council's mandate, and that its tabling had been illegal in terms of [[international law]].<ref>{{cite web|date=2007-02-12|title=UN acted illegally - Mbeki|url=https://www.news24.com/news24/un-acted-illegally-mbeki-20070211|access-date=2022-02-04|website=News24|language=en-US}}</ref>

===Quiet diplomacy in Zimbabwe===
{{Further|South Africa–Zimbabwe relations}}

Mbeki's presidency coincided with an escalating political and economic crisis in South Africa's neighbour, Zimbabwe, under president Mugabe of ZANU-PF. Problems included land invasions under the [[Land reform in Zimbabwe#Fast-track land reform and violence|"fast-track" land reform]] programme, [[political violence]] and state-sponsored human rights violations, and [[Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe|hyperinflation]].<ref name="Akokpari-2009">{{Cite journal|last1=Akokpari|first1=John|last2=Nyonio|first2=Tavaka|date=2009-01-01|title=Reassessing the politics of neo-colonialism and African solidarity : contextualising Thabo Mbeki's quiet iplomacy on Zimbabwe|url=https://journals.co.za/doi/10.10520/EJC134817|journal=AFFRIKA Journal of Politics, Economics and Society|volume=1|issue=1|pages=117–133|hdl=10520/EJC134817}}</ref> With SADC's endorsement, Mbeki frequently acted as a mediator between ZANU-PF and the Zimbabwean opposition. However, controversially, his policy towards the Mugabe regime was one of non-confrontational "quiet diplomacy" and "constructive engagement": he refused to condemn Mugabe and instead attempted to persuade him to accept gradual political reforms.<ref name="McKinley-2004">{{Cite journal|last=McKinley|first=Dale T.|date=2004|title=South African Foreign Policy Towards Zimbabwe under Mbeki|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4006899|journal=Review of African Political Economy|volume=31|issue=100|pages=357–364|jstor=4006899|issn=0305-6244}}</ref><ref name="Akokpari-2009"/> He was firmly opposed to forcible or manufactured [[regime change]] in Zimbabwe, and also opposed the use of sanctions.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Slevin|first=Peter|date=2003-09-25|title=Mbeki Says Diplomacy Needed for Zimbabwe|language=en-US|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/09/25/mbeki-says-diplomacy-needed-for-zimbabwe/77a5a80a-c970-4d66-b933-137d19fee8d8/|access-date=2022-02-03|issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Wintour|first=Patrick|date=2008-07-07|title=Zimbabwe sanctions could lead to civil war, Mbeki warns leaders|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jul/08/zimbabwe.southafrica|access-date=2022-02-03|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref><ref name="reuters1">{{cite news|date=2007-05-29|title=South Africa rejects tough line on Zimbabwe|work=Reuters|url=http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL2921437.html|url-status=dead|access-date=2 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081225021214/http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL2921437.html|archive-date=25 December 2008}}</ref> The ''[[The Economist|Economist]]'' posited an "Mbeki doctrine" holding that South Africa "cannot impose its will on others, but it can help to deal with instability in African countries by offering its resources and its leadership to bring rival groups together, and to keep things calm until an election is safely held."<ref>{{Cite news|date=2003-05-08|title=Come, let's be friends|newspaper=The Economist|url=https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2003/05/08/come-lets-be-friends|access-date=2022-02-03|issn=0013-0613}}</ref> Mbeki said in 2004:{{blockquote|...the critical role we should play is to assist the Zimbabweans to find each other, really to agree among themselves about the political, economic, social, other solutions that their country needs. We could have stepped aside from that task and then shouted, and that would be the end of our contribution... They would shout back at us and that would be the end of the story. I'm actually the only head of government that I know anywhere in the world who has actually gone to Zimbabwe and spoken publicly very critically of the things that they are doing.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hlongwane|first=Sipho|date=2012-06-18|title=Mbeki at 70: his legacy still mixed, despite resuscitation efforts|url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-06-19-mbeki-at-70-his-legacy-still-mixed-despite-resuscitation-efforts/|access-date=2022-02-03|website=Daily Maverick|language=en}}</ref>}}The motives behind Mbeki's Zimbabwe policy have been interpreted in various ways: for example, some suggest that he was attempting to maintain economic stability in Zimbabwe and therefore to protect South African economic interests, while others cite his attachment to ideals of African solidarity and opposition to what he perceived as quasi-[[Imperialism|imperial]] Western interference in Africa.<ref name="Akokpari-2009"/><ref name="McKinley-2004"/><ref name="MGkhampepe">{{cite news|date=21 November 2014|title=Editorial: Mbeki betrayed democracy|newspaper=[[Mail & Guardian]]|url=http://mg.co.za/article/2014-11-21-editorial-mbeki-betrayed-democracy|access-date=25 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Adelmann|first=Martin|date=2004|title=Quiet Diplomacy: The Reasons behind Mbeki's Zimbabwe Policy|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40175024|journal=Africa Spectrum|volume=39|issue=2|pages=249–276|jstor=40175024|issn=0002-0397}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Moore|first=David|date=2010|title=A Decade of Disquieting Diplomacy: South Africa, Zimbabwe and the Ideology of the National Democratic Revolution, 1999–2009|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00713.x|journal=History Compass|language=en|volume=8|issue=8|pages=752–767|doi=10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00713.x|issn=1478-0542|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In any case, Mbeki's policy on Zimbabwe attracted widespread criticism both domestically and internationally.<ref name="clewlow">{{cite web|year=2007|title=Clewlow urges new approach on Zimbabwe|url=http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=13548|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070211175248/http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=13548|archive-date=11 February 2007|access-date=28 May 2007|work=Business Day|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="telegraph1">{{cite news|last=Stanford|first=Peter|date=17 April 2007|title=Zimbabweans 'must make a stand'|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|location=London|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1548892/Zimbabweans-must-make-a-stand.html|url-status=dead|access-date=2 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618212801/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1548892/Zimbabweans-must-make-a-stand.html|archive-date=18 June 2010}}</ref><ref name="News24">{{cite web|date=2008-04-28|title=Zim silence Mbeki's demise?|url=http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_2313277,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080501130210/http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_2313277,00.html|archive-date=1 May 2008|access-date=2 September 2013|work=News24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Russell|first=Alec|date=2008-04-17|title=Mbeki's 'quiet diplomacy' meets an ever louder response|work=Financial Times|url=https://www.ft.com/content/ca920680-0ca9-11dd-86df-0000779fd2ac |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/ca920680-0ca9-11dd-86df-0000779fd2ac |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription|access-date=2022-02-03}}</ref> Some also questioned Mbeki's neutrality in his role as mediator.<ref name="24.com1">{{cite web|date=27 May 2007|title=Zim talks: Mbeki 'must be fair'|url=http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Zimbabwe/0,,2-11-1662_2119830,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071027153026/http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Zimbabwe/0,,2-11-1662_2119830,00.html|archive-date=27 October 2007|access-date=27 May 2007|work=News 24}}</ref> After a South African [[Election monitoring|observer mission]] endorsed the result of the Zimbabwean [[2002 Zimbabwean presidential election|presidential election of 2002]], in which Mugabe was re-elected,<ref>{{Cite news|date=2003-11-03|title=Was Zimbabwe's election fair?|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3237327.stm|access-date=2022-02-03}}</ref><ref name="Benjamin-2014">{{cite web|last=Benjamin|first=Chantelle|date=2014-11-14|title=Khampepe: Zim's 2002 elections not free and fair|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2014-11-14-khampepe-zimbabwes-2002-elections-not-free-and-fair/|access-date=2022-02-03|website=The Mail & Guardian|language=en-ZA}}</ref> Zimbabwean opposition leader [[Morgan Tsvangirai]] accused Mbeki of being a "dishonest broker" and his government of becoming "part of the Zimbabwe problem because its actions are worsening the crisis."<ref name="McKinley-2004"/> Commentators later said that Mbeki's soft stance on Mugabe during this period permanently damaged relations between South Africa and the Zimbabwean opposition.<ref name="MGkhampepe"/><ref name="Allison-2014">{{cite web|last=Allison|first=Simon|date=2014-11-17|title=The Khampepe Report, a crushing blow to SA's diplomatic credibility|url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2014-11-17-analysis-the-khampepe-report-a-crushing-blow-to-sas-diplomatic-credibility/|access-date=2022-02-03|website=Daily Maverick|language=en}}</ref> A South African government observer mission also endorsed the result of the Zimbabwean [[2005 Zimbabwean parliamentary election|parliamentary elections of 2005]], apparently leading Tsvangirai's party, the [[Movement for Democratic Change (1999–2005)|Movement for Democratic Change]] (MDC), to effectively sever relations with Mbeki's administration.<ref name="Andrews-2005">{{Cite book|last1=Andrews|first1=Carole|url=https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/RP05-58/RP05-58.pdf|title=Zimbabwe after the 2005 parliamentary election|last2=Morgan|first2=Bryn|publisher=House of Commons Library|location=London|publication-date=2005-08-18}}</ref> [[File:Vladimir Putin in South Africa 5-6 September 2006-5.jpg|thumb|Mbeki with Russian President [[Vladimir Putin]] in Cape Town, September 2006.]]

==== Power-sharing negotiations ====
{{Main|2008–2009 Zimbabwean political negotiations}}
Following [[2008 Zimbabwean general election|another contested election]] in Zimbabwe – after which Mbeki controversially denied that there was a "crisis" in Zimbabwe<ref>{{cite news|date=12 April 2008|title=Mbeki urges patience on Zimbabwe|work=BBC News|location=London|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7343907.stm|access-date=25 June 2008}}</ref> – the MDC and ZANU-PF [[2008–2009 Zimbabwean political negotiations|entered into negotiations]] towards the formation of a power-sharing government, with talks beginning in July 2008.<ref>[http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/07/20/africa/OUKWD-UK-ZIMBABWE-CRISIS-ODINGA.php "Odinga says Zimbabwe opposition ready for talks"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917121451/http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/07/20/africa/OUKWD-UK-ZIMBABWE-CRISIS-ODINGA.php|date=17 September 2008}}, Reuters. ''International Herald Tribune'', 20 July 2008.</ref> Mbeki mediated the negotiations and brokered the resulting power-sharing agreement, signed on 15 September 2008, which retained Mugabe as president but diluted his executive power across posts to be held by opposition leaders.<ref>{{cite web|date=2008-09-15|title=Zimbabwe power-sharing deal signed|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna26715920|access-date=2022-02-03|website=NBC News|language=en}}</ref>

=== HIV/AIDS ===
{{See also|HIV/AIDS in South Africa}}

==== Policy and treatment ====
According to political scientist [[Jeffrey Herbst]], Mbeki's HIV/AIDS policies were "bizarre at best, severely negligent at worst."<ref name="Herbst-2005" /> In 2000, amid a burgeoning [[HIV/AIDS]] epidemic in South Africa, Mbeki's government launched the ''HIV/AIDS/[[Sexually transmitted infection|STD]] Strategic Plan for South Africa, 2000–2005'', a "multi-sectoral" plan which was criticised by HIV/AIDS activists for lacking concrete timeframes and failing to commit to [[Management of HIV/AIDS|antiretroviral treatment]] programmes.<ref name="Butler-2005">{{Cite journal|last=Butler|first=Anthony|date=2005-09-08|title=South Africa's HIV/AIDS policy, 1994–2004: How can it be explained?|url=https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/104/417/591/32035|journal=African Affairs|volume=104|issue=417|pages=591–614|doi=10.1093/afraf/adi036|doi-access=free}}</ref> Indeed, according to economist [[Nicoli Nattrass]], resistance to the roll-out of antiretroviral drugs for prevention and treatment became central to the HIV/AIDS policy of Mbeki's government in subsequent years.<ref name="Nattrass-2008">{{cite journal|last1=Nattrass|first1=Nicoli|date=2008-02-07|title=AIDS and the Scientific Governance of Medicine in Post-Apartheid South Africa|journal=African Affairs|volume=107|issue=427|pages=157–176|doi=10.1093/afraf/adm087|doi-access=free}}</ref> A national [[Vertically transmitted infection|mother-to-child transmission]] prevention programme was not introduced until 2002, when it was mandated by the [[Constitutional Court of South Africa|Constitutional Court]] in response to a successful legal challenge by the [[Treatment Action Campaign]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Honermann|first=Brian|date=2012-07-05|title=A judgment that saved a million lives|url=https://www.iol.co.za/the-star/a-judgment-that-saved-a-million-lives-1334636|access-date=2022-02-03|website=The Star|language=en}}</ref> Similarly, chronic highly active antiretroviral therapy for AIDS-sick people was not introduced in the public [[Healthcare in South Africa|healthcare system]] until late 2003, reportedly at the insistence of some members of [[First Cabinet of Thabo Mbeki|Mbeki's cabinet]].<ref name="Nattrass-2008"/> According to Nattrass, better access to antiretroviral drugs in South Africa could have prevented about 171,000 HIV infections and 343,000 deaths between 1999 and 2007.<ref name="Nattrass-2008"/> In November 2008, a [[Harvard University]] study estimated that more than 330,000 people died between 2000 and 2005 due to insufficient antiretroviral programmes under Mbeki's government.<ref name="Chigwedere-2008">{{Cite journal|last1=Chigwedere|first1=Pride|last2=Seage|first2=George R.|last3=Gruskin|first3=Sofia|last4=Lee|first4=Tun-Hou|last5=Essex|first5=M.|date=2008-12-01|title=Estimating the lost benefits of antiretroviral drug use in South Africa|journal=Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes|volume=49|issue=4|pages=410–415|doi=10.1097/qai.0b013e31818a6cd5|issn=1525-4135|pmid=19186354|s2cid=11458278 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Even after these programmes were introduced, Mbeki's appointee as Minister of Health, [[Manto Tshabalala-Msimang]], continued to advocate publicly for unproven alternative treatments in place of antiretrovirals, leading to continual calls by civil society for her dismissal.<ref name="Nattrass-2008"/> In late 2006, [[Second Cabinet of Thabo Mbeki|the cabinet]] transferred responsibility for AIDS policy from Tshabalala-Msimang to Deputy President [[Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka]], who subsequently spearheaded a new draft National Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS.<ref name="Nattrass-2008"/><ref>{{cite web|last=McGreal|first=Chris|date=2006-11-30|title=South Africa ends long denial over Aids crisis|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/nov/30/southafrica.aids|access-date=2022-02-03|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref>

==== Association with denialism ====
{{See also|HIV/AIDS denialism in South Africa}}[[File:Aids Conference Durban.jpg|thumb|240x240px|Protest poster at the [[XIII International AIDS Conference, 2000|XIII International AIDS Conference]] in [[Durban]], July 2000.|left]]
While president, Mbeki was also criticised for his public messaging on [[HIV/AIDS in South Africa|HIV/AIDS]]. He was viewed as sympathetic to or influenced by the views of a small minority of scientists who challenged the scientific consensus that HIV caused AIDS and that [[antiretroviral drugs]] were the most effective means of treatment.<ref>{{cite web|last=Boseley|first=Sarah|date=2008-11-26|title=Mbeki Aids denial 'caused 300,000 deaths'|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/26/aids-south-africa|access-date=2022-02-04|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=McGreal|first=Chris|date=2001-06-12|title=Mbeki's part in AIDS catastrophe|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jun/12/aids.chrismcgreal|access-date=2022-02-04|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> In an April 2000 letter to UN secretary-general [[Kofi Annan]] and the heads of state of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and France, Mbeki pointed to differences in how the AIDS epidemic had manifested in Africa and in the West, and committed to "the search for specific and targeted responses to the specifically African incidence of HIV-AIDS."<ref name="Frontline-2020">{{cite web|title=Thabo Mbeki's Letter|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/docs/mbeki.html|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Frontline: The Age of AIDS|publisher=PBS}}</ref> He also defended scientists who had challenged the scientific consensus on AIDS: {{blockquote|Not long ago, in our own country, people were killed, tortured, imprisoned and prohibited from being quoted in private and in public because the established authority believed that their views were dangerous and discredited. We are now being asked to do precisely the same thing that the racist apartheid tyranny we opposed did, because, it is said, there exists a scientific view that is supported by the majority, against which dissent is prohibited... People who otherwise would fight very hard to defend the critically important rights of freedom of thought and speech occupy, with regard to the HIV-AIDS issue, the frontline in the campaign of intellectual intimidation and terrorism...<ref name="Frontline-2020" /> }}The letter was leaked to ''[[The Washington Post]]'' and caused controversy.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cherry|first=Michael|date=2000-04-01|title=Letter fuels South Africa's AIDS furore|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=404|issue=6781|page=911|doi=10.1038/35010218|pmid=10801091|s2cid=4312105|issn=1476-4687|doi-access=free}}</ref> During the same period, Mbeki convened a panel to investigate the cause of AIDS, staffed by researchers who believed that AIDS was caused by malnutrition and parasites as well as by orthodox researchers.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Daley|first=Suzanne|date=2000-05-14|title=The World: AIDS in South Africa; A President Misapprehends a Killer|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/14/weekinreview/the-world-aids-in-south-africa-a-president-misapprehends-a-killer.html|access-date=2022-02-04|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In July 2000, opening the [[XIII International AIDS Conference, 2000|13th International AIDS Conference]] in [[Durban]], he proposed that the "disturbing phenomenon of the [[Immunodeficiency|collapse of immune systems]] among millions of our people" was the result of various factors, especially poverty, and that "we could not blame everything on a single virus."<ref>{{cite web|last=Mbeki|first=Thabo|date=2000-07-09|title=Speech at the Opening Session of the 13th International AIDS Conference|url=http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/2000/tm0709.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828203441/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/2000/tm0709.html|archive-date=2008-08-28|access-date=2022-02-04|website=African National Congress}}</ref> It was characteristic of Mbeki's stance on HIV/AIDS to draw attention to socioeconomic differences between the West and Africa, emphasising the importance of poverty in poor health outcomes in Africa, and to insist that African countries should not be asked blindly to accept Western scientific theories and policy models. Commentators speculate that his stance was motivated by suspicion of the West and was a response to what he perceived as [[Ethnic stereotype|racist stereotypes]] of the continent and its people.<ref name="pbs">{{cite magazine|last=Power|first=Samantha|year=2003|title=The AIDS Rebel|url=https://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/stateofdenial/special_rebel.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081228233856/http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/stateofdenial/special_rebel.html|archive-date=28 December 2008|access-date=23 November 2006|magazine=The New Yorker}}</ref><ref name="aidsonline">{{cite journal|last=Schneider|first=Helen|author2=Fassin, Didier|year=2002|title=Denial and defiance: a socio-political analysis of AIDS in South Africa|url=http://www.aidsonline.com/pt/re/aids/fulltext.00002030-200216004-00007.htm|journal=AIDS Supplement|volume=16|issue=Supplement 4|pages=S45–S51|doi=10.1097/00002030-200216004-00007|pmid=12698999|access-date=23 November 2006|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Camp|first=Emma|date=2016-04-12|title=Thabo Mbeki's AIDS Denialism: Neoliberalism, Government and Civil Society in South Africa|url=https://lucas.leeds.ac.uk/article/thabo-mbekis-aids-denialism-emma-camp/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Leeds African Studies Bulletin (77)|publisher=University of Leeds|language=en-GB}}</ref> For example, in October 2001, in a speech at the [[University of Fort Hare]], he said of the West: "Convinced that we are but natural-born, promiscuous carriers of germs, unique in the world, they proclaim that our continent is doomed to an inevitable mortal end because of our unconquerable devotion to the sin of lust."<ref>{{cite web|date=2001-10-26|title=Mbeki in bizarre Aids outburst|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2001-10-26-mbeki-in-bizarre-aids-outburst/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=The Mail & Guardian|language=en-ZA}}</ref>

Mbeki announced in October 2000 that he would withdraw from the public debate on HIV/AIDS science,<ref name="Butler-2005" /><ref name="aidsonline" /> and in 2002 his cabinet staunchly affirmed that HIV causes AIDS.<ref>{{cite web|date=2002-04-17|title=Statement on Cabinet meeting of 17 April 2002|url=https://www.gcis.gov.za/content/newsroom/media-releases/cabinet-statements/statement-cabinet-meeting-17-april-2002-1|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Government Communication and Information System (GCIS)}}</ref> However, critics claimed that he continued to influence – and impede – HIV/AIDS policy, a charge which Mbeki denied.<ref name="mg2005mar">{{cite web|last=Deane|first=Nawaal|date=2005-03-25|title=Mbeki dismisses Rath|url=http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=200272&area=/insight/insight__national/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312053446/http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=200272&area=%2Finsight%2Finsight__national%2F|archive-date=12 March 2007|access-date=23 November 2006|work=Mail & Guardian|df=dmy-all}}</ref> AIDS activist [[Zackie Achmat]] said in 2002 that "Mbeki epitomizes leadership in denial and his stand has fuelled government inaction."<ref name="aidsonline" /> Gevisser writes that in 2007 Mbeki continued to defend his position on HIV/AIDS, and directed Gevisser to a controversial and anonymous ANC discussion document titled [[Castro Hlongwane, Caravans, Cats, Geese, Foot & Mouth and Statistics|''Castro Hlongwane, Caravans, Cats, Geese, Foot & Mouth and Statistics: HIV/Aids and the Struggle for the Humanisation of the African'']].<ref name="gucm2007">{{cite news|last=McGreal|first=Chris|date=6 November 2007|title=Mbeki admits he is still Aids dissident six years on|work=The Guardian|location=UK|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/nov/06/southafrica.aids|access-date=18 April 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=2007-11-06|title=Mbeki 'still Aids dissident'|url=https://www.news24.com/news24/mbeki-still-aids-dissident-20071106|access-date=2022-02-04|website=News24|language=en-US}}</ref> The Gevisser biography also says that, while Mbeki never explicitly [[HIV/AIDS denialism|denied the link between HIV and AIDS]], he is a "profound sceptic"<ref name="gucm2007" /> – as Mbeki himself wrote in 2016, in a newsletter cautioning "great care and caution" in the use of antiretrovirals, he had not denied that HIV caused AIDS but that "a virus [could] cause a syndrome."<ref>{{cite web|last=Gaffey|first=Conor|date=2016-03-08|title=Ex-South African President Thabo Mbeki stands by his controversial HIV comments|url=https://www.newsweek.com/thabo-mbeki-south-africa-hiv-aids-434745|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Newsweek|language=en}}</ref> He is generally referred to as an HIV/AIDS "dissident" rather than an outright denialist, although Nattrass questions the value of that distinction.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nattrass|first=Nicoli|date=2007|title=AIDS Denialism vs. Science|url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/2007/09/aids-denialism-vs-science/|journal=Skeptical Inquirer|volume=31|issue=5}}</ref>

=== FIFA World Cup bid ===
{{Main|2010 FIFA World Cup#Host selection}}
As president, Mbeki spearheaded South Africa's successful bid to host the [[2010 FIFA World Cup]]. Commentators, and Mbeki himself, frequently linked the bid to his vision for an African renaissance.<ref>{{cite web|last=September|first=Luxolo|date=2020-07-06|title=2010 World Cup was an African Renaissance project|url=https://www.newframe.com/2010-world-cup-was-an-african-renaissance-project/|access-date=2022-02-03|website=New Frame}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Field|first=Russell|date=2010|title=The Soccer World Goes to South Africa: Sport and the Making of Modern Africa|url=https://origins.osu.edu/article/soccer-world-goes-south-africa-sport-and-making-modern-africa?language_content_entity=en|access-date=2022-02-03|website=Origins|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ndlovu|first=Sifiso Mxolisi|date=2010-01-01|title=Sports as cultural diplomacy: the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa's foreign policy|journal=Soccer & Society|volume=11|issue=1–2|pages=144–153|doi=10.1080/14660970903331466|s2cid=145150015|issn=1466-0970|doi-access=free}}</ref> In 2015, amid an [[2015 FIFA corruption case|American investigation]] into corruption at [[FIFA]], soccer administrator [[Chuck Blazer]] testified that, between 2004 and 2011, he and other FIFA executives had received [[Bribery|bribes]] in connection with South Africa's bid.<ref>{{cite web|last=Gibson|first=Owen|date=2015-06-03|title=Fifa informant Chuck Blazer: I took bribes over 1998 and 2010 World Cups|url=http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/03/fifa-chuck-blazer-bribes-world-cup|access-date=2022-02-03|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> Mbeki denied any knowledge of the bribes.<ref>{{cite web|date=2015-05-29|title=SA didn't buy 2010 WC - Mbeki|url=https://www.iol.co.za/sport/soccer/sa-didnt-buy-2010-wc-mbeki-1864885|access-date=2022-02-03|website=IOL|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=2015-06-07|title=FIFA email connects Blatter, Mbeki to $10m 'bribe'|url=https://www.enca.com/south-africa/fifa-email-connects-blatter-mbeki-10m-bribe-newspaper|access-date=2022-02-03|website=eNCA|language=en|archive-date=3 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220203134351/https://www.enca.com/south-africa/fifa-email-connects-blatter-mbeki-10m-bribe-newspaper|url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:Dmitry Medvedev at the 34th G8 Summit 7-9 July 2008-45.jpg|thumb|299x299px|Mbeki with Russian President [[Dmitry Medvedev]] at the [[34th G8 summit]], July 2008.]]

=== Electricity crisis ===
{{see also|South African energy crisis}}

In late 2007, Mbeki's government announced that the public power utility, [[Eskom]], would introduce electricity rationing or rolling blackouts, commonly known in South Africa as [[Rolling blackout|loadshedding]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Grootes|first=Stephen|date=2019-12-08|title=Twelve years of load shedding – written, starring & directed by the ANC|url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-12-09-twelve-years-of-load-shedding-written-starring-directed-by-the-anc/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Daily Maverick|language=en}}</ref> In subsequent months, Mbeki publicly apologised, acknowledging that the government had failed to heed Eskom's warnings, offered regularly for several consecutive years, that infrastructure investments were required to avoid energy shortages – in his words, "Eskom was right and government was wrong."<ref>{{cite web|last=Sokopo|first=Asa|date=2007-12-12|title=Mbeki apologises for SA power cuts|url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/mbeki-apologises-for-sa-power-cuts-382421|access-date=2022-02-04|website=IOL|language=en}}</ref> However, some analysts suggested that insufficient investment was not the hindrance to electricity supply, and that other policy decisions by government and at Eskom, including the implementation of black economic empowerment criteria in coal procurement contracts, had contributed to the crisis.<ref>{{cite web|last=Newmarch|first=Jocelyn|date=2008-02-11|title=Anatomy of a catastrophe|url=http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=%2Finsight%2Finsight__economy__business&articleid=331969|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213174054/http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/insight/insight__economy__business&articleid=331969|archive-date=2008-02-13|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Mail & Guardian}}</ref> In his last [[State of the Nation Address (South Africa)|State of the Nation]] address in February 2008, Mbeki repeated the apology and devoted nearly three pages of his speech to government's plans for addressing the energy crisis.<ref>{{cite web|last=Boyle|first=Brendan|date=2008-02-08|title=It's business unusual - Mbeki|url=http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=701786|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081223022637/http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=701786|archive-date=2008-12-23|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Sunday Times}}</ref>

===2008 xenophobic attacks===
{{Main|Xenophobia in South Africa#May 2008 riots|l1 = May 2008 xenophobic riots}}
In May 2008, a [[May 2008 riots in South Africa|series of riots]] took place in a number of South African [[Township (South Africa)|townships]], mainly in [[Gauteng]] province, when South African residents violently attacked migrants from other African countries. At least 62 people were killed, several hundred injured, and many thousand displaced.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2008-05-31|title=South Africa violence toll rises to 62|language=en|work=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-violence-deaths-idUSL31541720080531|access-date=2022-02-04}}</ref> To contain the violence, Mbeki deployed [[South African National Defence Force|the army]] to affected areas – the first such deployment to a civilian area since the end of apartheid.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2008-05-21|title=SA leader orders army to deploy|language=en-GB|work=BBC|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7412128.stm|access-date=2022-02-04}}</ref> In a televised address towards the end of the saga, Mbeki called the attacks "an absolute disgrace", saying, "Never since the birth of our democracy have we witnessed such callousness."<ref>{{cite web|date=2008-05-25|title=Mbeki finally condemns xenophobic violence|url=https://www.france24.com/en/20080525-mbeki-finally-condemns-xenophobic-violence-south-africa-violence|access-date=2022-02-04|website=France 24|language=en}}</ref>

Some commentators argued that Mbeki's government had failed to acknowledge or sufficiently to address growing [[xenophobia]] in South Africa in the years preceding the attacks. Indeed, the AU's African Peer Review Mechanism had reported in 2006 that xenophobia was an urgent concern in South Africa.<ref name="Adebajo-2017">{{cite web|last=Adebajo|first=Adekeye|date=2017-05-05|title=Thabo Mbeki's xenophobia denialism|url=https://guardian.ng/opinion/thabo-mbekis-xenophobia-denialism/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=The Guardian Nigeria|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="Crush-2021">{{Cite book|last=Crush|first=Jonathan|url=https://media.africaportal.org/documents/SAMP82.pdf|title=Deadly Denial: Xenophobia Governance and the Global Compact for Migration in South Africa|date=2021-06-25|publisher=Southern African Migration Programme (SAMP)|isbn=978-1-920596-46-0|language=en|access-date=4 February 2022|archive-date=4 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220204160950/https://media.africaportal.org/documents/SAMP82.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> These criticisms were often linked to criticisms of Mbeki's policy in Zimbabwe, because a large proportion of South Africa's growing foreign-born population were Zimbabwean refugees.<ref>{{cite web|last=Karimakwenda|first=Tererai|date=2008-05-19|title=South Africa: Mbeki Blamed After 20 More Die in Xenophobic Attacks|url=http://allafrica.com/stories/200805191523.html|access-date=19 May 2008|website=AllAfrica}}</ref> Moreover, when Mbeki argued that the attacks had other motives, both economic and "criminal", some critics accused him of "xenophobia denialism" and of refusing to acknowledge the genuine xenophobic sentiment in parts of the population.<ref name="Adebajo-2017" /><ref name="Crush-2021" />

==Succession==
[[File:Zuma-court-crowd.jpg|thumb|251x251px|Zuma supporters outside the [[Johannesburg High Court]] during [[Jacob Zuma rape trial|Zuma's rape trial]], May 2006.]]

=== Polokwane conference ===
{{Main|52nd National Conference of the African National Congress}}
In June 2005, Mbeki removed Zuma from his post as national deputy president, after Zuma's associate [[Schabir Shaik]] was [[Schabir Shaik trial|convicted]] of making corrupt payments to Zuma in relation to the 1999 [[South African Arms Deal|Arms Deal]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Vasagar|first=Jeevan|date=2005-06-14|title=Mbeki fires deputy in corruption scandal|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jun/15/southafrica.jeevanvasagar|access-date=2021-12-24|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref><ref name="sacked">{{cite web|date=14 June 2005|title=Deputy president sacked|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2005-06-14-deputy-president-sacked|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180215143844/https://mg.co.za/article/2005-06-14-deputy-president-sacked|archive-date=15 February 2018|work=[[Mail & Guardian]]}}</ref> The [[National Prosecuting Authority]] (NPA) [[Jacob Zuma corruption charges|charged Zuma with corruption]] later that year. However, Zuma remained deputy president of the ANC, and in subsequent years, the rivalry between Zuma and Mbeki and their allies intensified, with Zuma supporters frequently alleging that the charges against Zuma were politically motivated.<ref name="Booysen-2011">{{Citation|last=Booysen|first=Susan|title=Aluta continua, from Polokwane to Mangaung|date=2011|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.18772/12011115423.5|work=The African National Congress and the Regeneration of Political Power|pages=33–84|publisher=Wits University Press|isbn=978-1-86814-542-3|jstor=10.18772/12011115423.5|access-date=2021-12-09}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Gevisser|first=Mark|date=2007-12-12|title=South Africa Grows Up|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/opinion/12gevisser.html|access-date=2021-12-09|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name="Gevisser-2007">{{Cite book|last=Gevisser|first=Mark|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pMJ6AAAAMAAJ|title=Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred|date=2007|publisher=Jonathan Ball|isbn=978-1-86842-301-9|language=en|chapter=Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, and the Future of the South African Dream}}</ref>

By 2007, Zuma had emerged as an apparent contender in the ANC's next presidential elections, to be held at the party's [[52nd National Conference of the African National Congress|52nd National Conference]] in [[Polokwane|Polokwane, Limpopo]]. By April of that year, it was also clear that Mbeki intended to stand for a third term as ANC president.<ref name="Gevisser-2007" /><ref>Gevisser, Mark (2007). "Home". ''Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred''. Jonathan Ball. {{ISBN|978-1-86842-301-9}}.</ref> Mbeki's term as national president would expire in 2009, and he had said in 2006 that he had no intention of having the [[Constitution of South Africa|Constitution]] changed to permit him a third term in office, saying, "By the end of 2009, I will have been in a senior position in government for 15 years. I think that's too long."<ref name="mg2006feb06">{{cite web|date=6 February 2006|title=Mbeki quashes third-term whispers|url=http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=263355|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060331024244/http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=%2Fbreaking_news%2Fbreaking_news__national%2F&articleid=263355|archive-date=31 March 2006|access-date=2 September 2013|work=Mail & Guardian}}</ref> However, the ANC lacked internal [[term limit]]s, and some suspected that he intended to continue to exert substantial influence over the government through the ANC presidency.<ref name="Gevisser-2007" /><ref>{{cite web|last=Munusamy|first=Ranjeni|date=2012-11-01|title=Polokwane and Mangaung: Shades of difference|url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-11-02-polokwane-and-mangaung-shades-of-difference/|access-date=2021-12-09|website=Daily Maverick|language=en}}</ref>

Zuma drew substantial support from the left wing of the party, especially through the [[African National Congress Youth League|ANC Youth League]] and the ANC's partners in the Tripartite Alliance, the [[South African Communist Party]] and [[Congress of South African Trade Unions|COSATU]], with whom Mbeki's relationship was extremely poor.<ref name="Gevisser-2007"/> At the elective conference, on 18 December, Mbeki lost the presidential election to Zuma, gaining less than 40% of the vote.<ref name="officials">{{cite web|title=Results for the election of ANC officials|url=http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pr/2007/pr1219.html|url-status=dead|website=ANC|publisher=|accessdate=2008-09-21|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080629130037/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pr/2007/pr1219.html|archivedate=2008-06-29}}</ref> According to ANC tradition, as ANC president Zuma would become the party's presidential candidate in the [[2009 South African general election|2009 general election]], and therefore, given the ANC's substantial electoral majority, was overwhelmingly likely to succeed Mbeki as national president in 2009.

===High court finding and appeal===
{{Further|Jacob Zuma corruption charges#September 2008: Charges declared unlawful|label1=Jacob Zuma corruption charges § Second indictment}}
On 12 September 2008, [[Pietermaritzburg High Court]] judge [[Christopher Robert Nicholson|Chris Nicholson]] set aside the corruption charges against Zuma. He found that the charges were unlawful on the procedural grounds that the NPA had not given Zuma adequate opportunity to make representations.<ref name="dismiss22">{{cite news|last=Zigomo|first=Muchena|date=11 September 2008|title=South African judge throws out Zuma graft case|newspaper=[[Reuters]]|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-zuma-idUSLC54653420080912|url-status=live|access-date=27 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129050546/http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/africa/2008/09/13/174479/S.-African.htm|archive-date=29 November 2014}}</ref><ref name="BBC News-2008">{{cite news|date=12 September 2008|title=SA court rejects Zuma graft case|work=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7612233.stm|url-status=live|access-date=15 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512100849/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7612233.stm|archive-date=12 May 2011}}</ref><ref name="Orr-2008">{{cite news|author=Orr|first=James|date=12 September 2008|title=South African court clears way for Zuma presidential run|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/sep/12/southafrica|url-status=live|access-date=15 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902225553/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/sep/12/southafrica|archive-date=2 September 2013}}</ref> Nicholson also lent his support to allegations that Zuma's charges had been politically motivated, saying that he was "not convinced that [Zuma] was incorrect when he averred political meddling in his prosecution" and that the case seemed to be part of "some great political contest or game."<ref name="dismiss22" /><ref name="Orr-2008" /> Mbeki later applied to the Constitutional Court to appeal the judgement, calling Nicholson's findings about political interference "vexatious, scandalous and prejudicial."<ref name="AFP-2008">{{cite web|author=AFP|date=23 September 2008|title=Mbeki challenges court ruling to defend reputation|url=http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jwg5P3sBxc05Xyc8vZeZ_g9yzAcA|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514090114/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jwg5P3sBxc05Xyc8vZeZ_g9yzAcA|archive-date=14 May 2011|access-date=15 September 2010|website=Google News}}</ref> The NPA also appealed, and in January 2009 the [[Supreme Court of Appeal (South Africa)|Supreme Court of Appeal]] found in its favour and overturned Nicholson's ruling. Partially redeeming Mbeki, the appellate court said that Nicholson's allegations of political interference had been irrelevant to Nicholson's decision and had apparently derived from Nicholson's "own conspiracy theory."<ref name="upholdsndpp2">{{cite news|last1=John|first1=Mark|last2=Kulikov|first2=Yuri|date=12 January 2009|title=Court upholds NDPP appeal in Zuma case|work=[[Mail & Guardian]]|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2009-01-12-zuma-not-off-the-hook|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420072934/https://mg.co.za/article/2009-01-12-zuma-not-off-the-hook|archive-date=20 April 2017}}</ref><ref name="Maughan-2009">{{cite web|last=Maughan|first=Karyn|date=2009-01-12|title=SCA opens the door for new Zuma charges|url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/sca-opens-the-door-for-new-zuma-charges-430966|access-date=2022-01-11|website=IOL|language=en}}</ref>

=== Resignation ===
However, shortly after Nicholson delivered his judgement and months before the appeal was heard, the Zuma-aligned ANC National Executive Committee, as elected at the Polokwane conference, "recalled" Mbeki, asking him to resign as national president.<ref name="ioltimeline22">{{cite web|date=15 February 2018|title=A timeline of Jacob Zuma's presidency|url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/a-timeline-of-jacob-zumas-presidency-13192711|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180213193627/https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/a-timeline-of-jacob-zumas-presidency-13192711|archive-date=13 February 2018|work=[[Independent Online (South Africa)|Independent Online]]}}</ref> The National Executive Committee is a party political body and therefore lacked the constitutional authority to remove Mbeki directly, but the ANC-controlled Parliament could have effected his removal had he not acquiesced voluntarily. On 20 September 2008, a spokesman announced that Mbeki would resign.<ref name="bbc2008-09-20">{{cite news|date=20 September 2008|title=SA's Mbeki says he will step down|work=BBC News|location=London|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/africa/7626646.stm|access-date=21 September 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Beresford|first=David|date=2008-09-20|title=Mbeki is forced out after split in ANC|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/sep/21/mbeki.resignation|access-date=2022-02-03|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> In court papers filed later that week, Mbeki said that it was Nicholson's findings which had "led to my being recalled by my political party, the ANC – a request I have acceded to as a committed and loyal member of the ANC for the past 52 years."<ref name="AFP-2008" />

In the aftermath of his announcement, at least 11 cabinet ministers and three deputy ministers – including Deputy President Mlambo-Ngcuka and Minister of Finance [[Trevor Manuel]] – announced that they would also resign.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Percival|first=Jenny|date=2008-09-23|title=Thabo Mbeki ousting sparks wave of political resignations|language=en|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/sep/23/southafrica.mbeki1|access-date=2022-02-03}}</ref> Mbeki's resignation took effect on 25 September, and he was replaced as national president by [[Kgalema Motlanthe]], who had been elected ANC deputy president at the Polokwane conference.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2008-09-25|title=Motlanthe: South Africa's safe hands|language=en-GB|work=BBC|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7629239.stm|access-date=2021-12-09}}</ref>

==Post-presidency==
[[File:Joe Biden with Thabo Mbeki.jpg|thumb|220x220px|Mbeki with American Vice President [[Joe Biden]] in the [[West Wing]], April 2011.]]
[[File:SRSG James Swan Meets Thabo.jpg|thumb|220x220px|Mbeki at a [[United Nations]] meeting on Sudan, July 2019.]]

=== Party politics ===
After his resignation from the presidency, Mbeki retained his ANC membership but retreated from party politics. In the meantime, the [[Congress of the People (South African political party)|Congress of the People]] (Cope) was founded as a breakaway party, composed largely of former ANC members known to be Mbeki loyalists. There were rumours that Mbeki was involved in Cope and would perhaps defect to it,<ref>{{cite web|date=2008-12-08|title='Mbeki is behind Cope'|url=https://www.news24.com/News24/Mbeki-is-behind-Cope-20081208|access-date=2022-02-04|website=News24|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=2011-01-13|title=Mbeki was behind Cope - WikiLeaks|url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/mbeki-was-behind-cope-wikileaks-1011402|access-date=2022-02-04|website=IOL|language=en}}</ref> especially after his mother Epainette, widow of ANC stalwart Govan, began attending Cope election rallies in the family's native Eastern Cape.<ref>{{cite web|date=2009-01-15|title=COPE pleased by Ma'Mbeki's support|url=https://ewn.co.za/2009/01/15/COPE-pleased-by-MaMbekis-support|access-date=2022-02-04|website=EWN|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=2009-01-15|title='Ma-Mbeki' has not joined COPE|url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/ma-mbeki-has-not-joined-cope-431396|access-date=2022-02-04|website=IOL|language=en}}</ref> According to political analyst Susan Booysen, although Mbeki "would never emerge from the silent, invisible wings onto centre stage... the whole Cope plot carried the 'Mbeki' stamp."<ref>{{Citation|last=Booysen|first=Susan|title=Countered and cowered Congress of the People (Cope)|date=2011|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.18772/12011115423.12|work=The African National Congress and the Regeneration of Political Power|pages=325–356|publisher=Wits University Press|jstor=10.18772/12011115423.12|isbn=978-1-86814-542-3}}</ref>

Mbeki began again to appear at ANC events and to comment on ANC politics from around 2011.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hlongwane|first=Sipho|date=2012-01-16|title=Mbeki is not coming back. Why would he?|url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2012-01-16-mbeki-is-not-coming-back-why-would-he/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Daily Maverick|language=en}}</ref> Although he has since said that he continued to vote for the ANC in the interim, he did not campaign on its behalf at any time during the Zuma presidency, which lasted between 2009 and 2018.<ref>{{cite web|last=Feketha|first=Siviwe|date=2021-05-31|title=Dishonesty within the ANC kept me from campaigning, says Mbeki|url=https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2021-05-31-dishonesty-within-the-anc-kept-me-from-campaigning-says-mbeki/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Sowetan|language=en-ZA}}</ref> In more recent years, he has been fairly vocal in reflecting publicly about perceived problems in the ANC and its leadership<ref>{{cite web|last=Madia|first=Tshidi|date=2021-06-01|title=Mbeki: Careerism within ANC a core problem|url=https://ewn.co.za/2021/06/01/mbeki-careerism-within-anc-a-core-problem|access-date=2022-02-04|website=EWN|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Tandwa|first=Lizeka|date=2021-05-31|title=Magashule and Zuma are a cautionary tale for the ANC — Mbeki|url=https://mg.co.za/politics/2021-05-31-thabo-mbeki-says-magashule-and-zuma-are-a-cautionary-tale-for-the-anc/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=The Mail & Guardian|language=en-ZA}}</ref> and about the country's economic problems and policies.<ref>{{cite web|last=Ndaba|first=Baldwin|date=2021-10-21|title=Thabo Mbeki says government will not provide jobs, roads, sewer and houses on its own - business must assist|url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/thabo-mbeki-says-government-will-not-provide-jobs-roads-sewer-and-houses-on-its-own-business-must-assist-06db23bb-ad3e-4bba-9656-74acf6b1e2e8|access-date=2022-02-04|website=IOL|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Njini|first=Felix|date=2020-11-09|title=Thabo Mbeki criticises Cyril Ramaphosa's economic plan to save SA|url=https://www.biznews.com/briefs/2020/11/09/thabo-mbeki-ramaphosa|access-date=2022-02-04|website=BizNews|language=en-GB}}</ref>

=== International mediation ===
Motlanthe asked Mbeki to remain in his role as mediator in Zimbabwe after his resignation in 2008,<ref>{{cite web|date=2008-10-02|title=SA backs Mbeki as Zim mediator|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2008-10-02-sa-backs-mbeki-as-zim-mediator/|access-date=2022-02-03|website=The Mail & Guardian|language=en-ZA}}</ref> and he later returned to Zimbabwe, in 2020, to mediate a further political dispute.<ref>{{cite web|last=Fabricius|first=Peter|date=2020-03-27|title=Thabo Mbeki's mediation role in Zimbabwe remains unclear|url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-03-27-thabo-mbekis-mediation-role-in-zimbabwe-remains-unclear/|access-date=2022-02-03|website=Daily Maverick|language=en}}</ref> He also continued to chair the long-serving AU High-level Implementation Panel for Sudan and South Sudan, which in 2016 brokered an agreement between warring Sudanese parties to begin peace negotiations.<ref>{{cite web|date=2016-03-29|title=UN chief welcomes signing by Sudanese Government of African Union roadmap agreement|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2016/03/525532-un-chief-welcomes-signing-sudanese-government-african-union-roadmap-agreement|access-date=2022-02-04|website=UN News|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Allison|first=Simon|date=2016-08-15|title=Sudan needs a hero – but is Thabo Mbeki really it?|url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-08-15-sudan-needs-a-hero-but-is-thabo-mbeki-really-it/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Daily Maverick|language=en}}</ref> Although he remained critical of the UN's interventions in Africa,<ref>{{cite web|last=Ncana|first=Nkululeko|date=2011-07-31|title=Mbeki: Africa has lost faith in the UN|url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/africa/2011-07-31-mbeki-africa-has-lost-faith-in-the-un/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Sunday Times|language=en-ZA}}</ref> he also chaired the UN Economic Commission for Africa High-Level Panel on [[Illicit financial flows|Illicit Financial Flows]] from Africa, which was established in collaboration with the AU in 2011.<ref>{{cite web|date=2016-02-19|title=UN panel chief, Thabo Mbeki, urges action plans to tackle illicit financial flow from Africa|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2016/02/522702-un-panel-chief-thabo-mbeki-urges-action-plans-tackle-illicit-financial-flow|access-date=2022-02-04|website=UN News|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=2016-03-30|title=Mbeki panel ramps up war against illicit financial flows|url=https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/april-2016/mbeki-panel-ramps-war-against-illicit-financial-flows|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Africa Renewal|language=en}}</ref>

=== Philanthropy ===
The Thabo Mbeki Foundation was launched on 10 October 2010, ahead of a three-day conference. Its mission centres around Mbeki's trademark "African renaissance", and the objective of promoting Africa's political, social, economic, and cultural development.<ref name="Bloom-2010">{{cite web|last=Bloom|first=Kevin|date=2010-10-14|title='Foundation' trouble: What Thabo Mbeki is up against|url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2010-10-14-foundation-trouble-what-thabo-mbeki-is-up-against/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Daily Maverick|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Mission & Vision|url=https://mbeki.org/mission-vision/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=Thabo Mbeki Foundation|language=en-ZA|archive-date=4 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220204114822/https://mbeki.org/mission-vision/|url-status=dead}}</ref> It was launched in tandem with the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute, which aims to train leaders capable of contributing to the foundation's objectives.<ref name="Bloom-2010" />

==Personality and public image==
[[File:Thabo Mbeki - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting New York 2002.jpg|left|thumb|259x259px|Mbeki at the [[World Economic Forum]] in [[New York City|New York]], February 2002.]]
Mbeki has sometimes been characterised as remote and academic, although in his second campaign for the Presidency in 2004, many observers described him as finally relaxing into more traditional ways of campaigning, sometimes dancing at events and even kissing babies.<ref>{{cite news |title='There is no secret to our success' |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2004-04-02-there-is-no-secret-to-our-success/ |access-date=24 June 2024 |work=The Mail & Guardian |date=2 April 2004 |language=en-ZA}}</ref><ref name="Carroll 2004">{{cite news |last1=Carroll |first1=Rory |author1-link=Rory Carroll |title=The Guardian profile: Thabo Mbeki |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/apr/09/southafrica.rorycarroll |access-date=24 June 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=9 April 2004}}</ref>  Mbeki used his weekly column in the ANC newsletter ''[[ANC Today]]'',<ref name="anctoday">{{cite web|title=ANC Today|url=http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061116104942/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/|archive-date=16 November 2006|access-date=22 November 2006|publisher=ANC}}</ref> to produce discussions on a variety of topics. He sometimes used his column to deliver pointed invective against political opponents, and at other times used it as a kind of professor of political theory, educating ANC cadres on the intellectual justifications for African National Congress policy. Although these columns were remarkable for their dense prose, they often were used to influence news. Although Mbeki did not generally make a point of befriending or courting reporters, his columns and news events often yielded good results for his administration by ensuring that his message is a primary driving force of news coverage.<ref name="themedia">{{cite web|last=Kupe|first=Tawane|year=2005|title=Mbeki's Media Smarts|url=http://www.themedia.co.za/article.aspx?articleid=196182&area=/media_columnistsundercurrent|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929143027/http://www.themedia.co.za/article.aspx?articleid=196182&area=%2Fmedia_columnistsundercurrent|archive-date=29 September 2007|access-date=22 November 2006|work=The Media Online|publisher=Mail&Guardian|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Indeed, in initiating his columns, Mbeki stated his view that the bulk of South African media sources did not speak for or to the South African majority, and stated his intent to use ''ANC Today'' to speak directly to his constituents rather than through the media.<ref name="anctoday-welcome">{{cite web|last=Mbeki|first=Thabo|year=2001|title=Welcome to ANC Today|url=http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2001/at01.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061018042020/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2001/at01.htm|archive-date=18 October 2006|access-date=22 November 2006|work=ANC Today|publisher=ANC}}</ref>

Mbeki appears to have been at ease with the Internet and willing to quote from it. For instance, in a column discussing [[Hurricane Katrina]],<ref name="anctoday-katrina">{{cite web|last=Mbeki|first=Thabo|year=2001|title=The shared pain of New Orleans|url=http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2005/at36.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061009181133/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2005/at36.htm|archive-date=9 October 2006|access-date=22 November 2006|work=ANC Today|publisher=ANC}}</ref> he cited [[Wikipedia]], quoted at length a discussion of Katrina's lessons on American inequality from the Native American publication ''[[Indian Country Today]]'',<ref name="indiancountry">{{cite web|title=Indian Country Today|url=http://www.indiancountry.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061121161029/http://www.indiancountry.com/|archive-date=21 November 2006|access-date=22 November 2006|df=dmy-all}}</ref> and then included excerpts from a [[David Brooks (journalist)|David Brooks]] column in ''[[The New York Times]]'' in a discussion of why the events of Katrina illustrated the necessity for global development and redistribution of wealth.

His penchant for quoting diverse and sometimes obscure sources, both from the Internet and from a wide variety of books, made his column an interesting parallel to political blogs although the ANC does not describe it in these terms. His views on AIDS were supported by Internet searching which led him to so-called "[[AIDS denialist]]" websites; in this case, Mbeki's use of the Internet was roundly criticised and even ridiculed by opponents.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Prominent African leaders since independence|date=April 2013|editor=Kasuka, Bridgette.|isbn=978-9987-16-026-6|edition=First|location=Dar es Salaam|publisher=New Africa Press|oclc=957968926}}</ref>

== Controversies ==
{{Criticism section|date=May 2025}}

=== 1999 Arms Deal ===
{{Main|South African Arms Deal}}
There have been rumours and allegations, never proven or prosecuted and denied by Mbeki, that Mbeki was involved in or aware of corruption in the 1999 [[South African Arms Deal|Arms Deal]], a major defence procurement package negotiated while he was deputy president.<ref>{{cite web|last=Maughan|first=Karyn|date=2008-06-19|title=Mbeki off the hook|url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/mbeki-off-the-hook-404952|access-date=2021-12-20|website=IOL|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Sapa-2003">{{cite web|date=2003-09-03|title=Probe Mbeki's Role In Arms Deal - De Lille|url=http://www.armsdeal-vpo.co.za/articles04/probe_mbeki.html|access-date=2021-12-21|website=Cape Times}}</ref><ref name="Nicolson-2014">{{cite web|last=Nicolson|first=Greg|date=2014-07-17|title=Mbeki in the arms deal spotlight|url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2014-07-17-mbeki-in-the-arms-deal-spotlight/|access-date=2021-12-20|website=Daily Maverick|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=|first=|date=2008-08-03|title=Mbeki Received Millions in German Defense Deal, Report Says|url=https://www.dw.com/en/mbeki-received-millions-in-german-defense-deal-report-says/a-3535872|access-date=2021-12-20|website=Deutsche Welle|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Evans|first=Sarah|date=2014-07-16|title=Arms deal: Was Thabo Mbeki complicit?|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2014-07-16-arms-deal-was-thabo-mbeki-complicit/|access-date=2022-02-04|website=The Mail & Guardian|language=en-ZA}}</ref>

===Crime===
In 2004 President Thabo Mbeki made an attack on commentators who argued that violent crime was out of control in South Africa, calling them white racists who want the country to fail. He alleged that crime was falling and some journalists were distorting reality by depicting black people as "barbaric savages" who liked to rape and kill.<ref name="Carroll">Carroll, Roy (5 October 2004) [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/oct/05/southafrica.rorycarroll "Mbeki says crime reports are racist"] ''The Guardian'' (Manchester)</ref> Annual statistics published in September 2004 showed that most categories of crime were down, but some had challenged the figures' credibility and said that South Africa remained extremely dangerous, especially for women. In a column for the African National Congress website, the president rebuked the doubters.<ref name="race-rape-row">Staff (5 October 2004) [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3716004.stm "Mbeki slammed in rape race row"] BBC News</ref> Mr Mbeki did not name journalist Charlene Smith who had championed victims of sexual violence since writing about her own rape, but quoted a recent article in which she said South Africa had the highest rate of rape and referred (apparently sarcastically) to her as an "internationally recognised expert on sexual violence".<ref name="Carroll"/> He said: "She was saying our cultures, traditions and religions as Africans inherently make every African man a potential rapist ... [a] view which defines the African people as barbaric savages."<ref name="race-rape-row"/> Mr Mbeki also described the newspaper ''The Citizen'', and other commentators who challenged the apparent fall in crime, as pessimists who did not trust black rule.<ref name="Carroll"/>

In January 2007, the [[African Peer Review Mechanism]] (APRM) ''draft'' report on South Africa was released. This noted that South Africa had the world's second-highest murder rate, with about 50 people a day being killed, and that although serious crime was reported as falling, security analysts said that the use of violence in robberies, and rape, were more common. Mbeki in response said in an interview that fears of crime were exaggerated.<ref>Boyle, Brendan (13 May 2007) [http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=15042 "South Africa rejects African Peer Review Mechanism report"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231430/http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=15042|date=3 March 2016}} ''The Sunday Times'' (Johannesburg, South Africa), from ''AfricaFiles''</ref><ref name="mcgreal2007">{{cite news|last=McGreal|first=Chris|date=29 January 2007|title=Report attacks S African crime and corruption|work=The Guardian|location=UK|url=https://www.theguardian.com/southafrica/story/0,,2001054,00.html|access-date=30 September 2007}}</ref>

In December 2007 the final African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) report on South Africa, again suggested that there was an unacceptably high level of violent crime in the country.<ref>''It must be noted however that the distinctive feature of crime in South Africa is not its volume but its level of violence.'' African Peer Review Mechanism (September 2007) [http://www.aprm.org.za/docs/SACountryReviewReport5.pdf ''APRM Country Review Report and the National Programme of Action of the Republic of South Africa''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090617105350/http://www.aprm.org.za/docs/SACountryReviewReport5.pdf|date=17 June 2009}} paragraph 949, page 285</ref> President Mbeki said the suggestion of unacceptably high violent crime appeared to be an acceptance by the panel of what he called "a populist view".<ref name="M-G-2007">
Staff (6 December 2007) [http://www.mg.co.za/article/2007-12-06-mbeki-critical-of-crime-issues-in-aprm-report "Mbeki critical of crime issues in APRM report"] ''Mail and Guardian'' (South Africa)</ref> He challenged some of the statistics on crime, which he noted may have resulted from a weak information base, leading to wrong conclusions. Although rape statistics had been obtained from the South African Police Service, "this only denotes the incidents of rape that were reported, some of which could have resulted in acquittals" Mbeki indicated.<ref name="M-G-2007"/>

=== Debate with Archbishop Tutu ===
In 2004 the [[Archbishop]] [[Emeritus]] of [[Cape Town]], [[Desmond Tutu]], criticised President Mbeki for surrounding himself with "yes-men", not doing enough to improve the position of the poor and for promoting economic policies that only benefited a small black elite. He also accused Mbeki and the ANC of suppressing public debate. Mbeki responded that Tutu had never been an ANC member and defended the debates that took place within ANC branches and other public forums. He also asserted his belief in the value of democratic discussion by quoting the Chinese slogan "let a hundred flowers bloom", referring to the brief [[Hundred Flowers Campaign]] within the Chinese Communist Party in 1956–57.

The ''ANC Today'' newsletter featured several analyses of the debate, written by Mbeki and the ANC.<ref name="anctoday-tutu1">{{cite web|last=Mbeki|first=Thabo|year=2005|title=The Sociology of the Public Discourse in Democratic South Africa / Part I – The Cloud with the Silver Lining|url=http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2005/at02.htm#art1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061004164618/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2005/at02.htm#art1|archive-date=4 October 2006|access-date=23 November 2006|work=ANC Today|publisher=ANC}}</ref><ref name="anctoday-tutu2">{{cite web|last=Mbeki|first=Thabo|year=2005|title=The Sociology of the Public Discourse in Democratic South Africa / Part II – Who shall set the national agenda?|url=http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2005/at02.htm#art1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061004164618/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2005/at02.htm#art1|archive-date=4 October 2006|access-date=23 November 2006|work=ANC Today|publisher=ANC}}</ref> The latter suggested that Tutu was an "icon" of "white elites", thereby suggesting that his political importance was overblown by the media; and while the article took pains to say that Tutu had not sought this status, it was described in the press as a particularly pointed and personal critique of Tutu. Tutu responded that he would pray for Mbeki as he had prayed for the officials of the apartheid government.<ref name="nu">{{cite web|last=Tutu, Mbeki & others|year=2005|title=Controversy: Tutu, Mbeki & the freedom to criticise|url=http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?3,28,10,1763|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070213032334/http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?3,28,10,1763|archive-date=13 February 2007|access-date=23 November 2006|publisher=Centre for Civil Society|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

== Political commentary post-presidency ==
On 10 October 2024, Mbeki wrote a letter to Mr Matome Chiloane, Member of the Executive for the [[Gauteng]] Education Department (GED), criticizing the GED's handling of an incident of alleged racism at [[Pretoria High School for Girls]]. The letter was copied to the Gauteng Premier, Mr Phanyaza Lesufi.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Reader |first=Simon Lincoln |date=2024-10-18 |title=Mbeki kicks the hornet's nest |url=https://dailyfriend.co.za/2024/10/18/mbeki-kicks-the-hornets-nest/ |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=Daily Friend |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Essays |url=https://www.school-capture.com/essays |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=School Capture |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Former President Mbeki Letter |url=https://www.school-capture.com/former-president-mbeki-letter |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=School Capture |language=en}}</ref> The GED had been criticized in the South African media for claiming that there was racism at Pretoria High School for Girls without proof of such.<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHSG Part 5 |url=https://www.school-capture.com/phsg-part-5 |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=School Capture |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Govender |first=Prega |date=2 August 2024 |title=12 Pretoria High School for Girls pupils found not guilty of racism allegations |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/12-pretoria-high-school-for-girls-pupils-found-not-guilty-of-racism-allegations-20240802 |access-date=16 November 2024 |work=News24}}</ref>

== Personal life and family ==
[[File:Thabo Mbeki 2003.jpg|thumb|upright|Mbeki in 2003]]
In October 1959, Mbeki had a son, [[Monwabisi Kwanda Mbeki|Monwabisi Kwanda]], with Olive Mpahlwa, a childhood friend which whom he had struck up a romance while at Lovedale. Kwanda was raised by his mother and later by Mbeki's mother, Epainette.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a"/>'''{{Rp|pages=110–116}}''' He was last seen by his family in 1981 and is presumed to have died in exile, but the circumstances of his death remain unknown. Olive testified about his disappearance at the [[Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)|Truth and Reconciliation Commission]] in 1996, making an impassioned plea for those with information to step forward.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a"/>'''{{Rp|pages=108}}'''

Mbeki's youngest brother, Jama, also disappeared in exile. He had spent his adolescence in [[Lesotho]] and was an activist in the [[Basutoland Congress Party]] (BCP) and its [[Lesotho Liberation Army]]. BCP was much closer to the PAC than to the ANC, and later became an avowed enemy of the latter. Jama disappeared in March 1982, after he skipped [[bail]].<ref name="Gevisser-2007a"/>'''{{Rp|pages=448–451}}''' According to an investigation commissioned by his family in the early 1990s, he was informed upon by a comrade, entrapped by security police, and killed on the side of a highway later in 1982.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a"/>'''{{Rp|pages=454}}''' Mbeki's only living sibling, Moeletsi, was also educated abroad and is now a prominent economist. He often publicly criticised the policies of his brother's government.<ref>{{cite web|last=Zvomuya|first=Percy|date=2011-08-26|title=Moeletsi Mbeki: More than just the second son|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2011-08-26-moeletsi-mbeki-more-than-just-the-second-son/|access-date=2022-02-05|website=The Mail & Guardian|language=en-ZA}}</ref>

Mbeki married [[Zanele Dlamini Mbeki]] in 1974, a social worker from [[Alexandra, Gauteng|Alexandra]] whom he met in London before his departure for Moscow. The wedding ceremony was held on 23 November at [[Farnham Castle]] in [[Surrey]], England. Adelaide Tambo and [[Mendi Msimang]] stood ''[[in loco parentis]]'' for Mbeki, and Essop Pahad was his best man.<ref name="Gevisser-2007a"/>'''{{Rp|pages=300–310|page=}}'''<ref name="marriage year2">{{cite web|last=Naidoo|first=Prakash|date=2006-07-07|title=Zanele Mbeki: Redefining the role of First Lady|url=http://free.financialmail.co.za/projects06/topwomen06/ntop.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071027152457/http://free.financialmail.co.za/projects06/topwomen06/ntop.htm|archive-date=27 October 2007|access-date=5 July 2008|work=Financial Mail}}</ref> They have no children together.

==Recognition==
===Honorary degrees===
Mbeki has received many honorary degrees from South African and foreign universities. Mbeki received an honorary doctorate in business administration from the [[Hult International Business School|Arthur D Little Institute]], Boston, in 1994.<ref name="whoswho">{{cite web |year = 2007 |url = http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/Pages/profilefull.aspx?IndID=895 |title = Profile of Thabo Mbeki |publisher = Who's Who SA |access-date = 19 December 2007 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071221171528/http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/Pages/profilefull.aspx?IndID=895 |archive-date = 21 December 2007 |df = dmy-all}}</ref> In 1995, he received honorary doctorate from the [[University of South Africa]] and an honorary doctorate of laws from [[Sussex University]].<ref name="whoswho" /> Mbeki was awarded an honorary doctorate from [[Rand Afrikaans University]] in 1999.<ref name="timeline">{{cite web |year=2004 |url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/chronology/special-chrono/people/mbeki-t.htm |title=South African History Timelines:Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki |work=South African History Online |access-date=19 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218213828/http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/chronology/special-chrono/people/mbeki-t.htm |archive-date=18 December 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2000 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws from [[Glasgow Caledonian University]].<ref name="bbcdegree">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/754600.stm |title=Degree honour for Mbeki |work=BBC News |access-date=19 December 2007 | date=19 May 2000 | location=London}}</ref> In 2004, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in commercial sciences by the [[University of Stellenbosch]].<ref name="stellenbosch">{{cite web |last=McGrenery |first=Tom |year=2004 |url=http://www.acu.ac.uk/yearbook/may2004/10-17.pdf |title=President Thabo Mbeki receives Honorary Stellenbosch Degree |work=ACU |access-date=19 December 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071010144328/http://www.acu.ac.uk/yearbook/may2004/10-17.pdf |archive-date = 10 October 2007}}</ref>

===Orders and decorations===
During Mbeki's official visit to Britain in 2001, he was made an honorary [[Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]] (GCB).<ref>{{cite web|title=Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki|url=http://eng.rudn.ru/cooperation/honorary-doctors/thabo-mvuyelwa-mbeki/|website=eng.rudn.ru|access-date=2020-05-29}}</ref> The Mayor of [[Athens]], [[Dora Bakoyannis]], awarded Mbeki with the City of Athens Medal of Honour in 2005.<ref name="athens">{{cite web |year = 2005 |url = http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2005/05022809451003.htm |title = Athens Mayor Awards South African President City Medal of Honour |publisher = Department of Foreign Affairs |access-date = 19 December 2007 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071227155321/http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2005/05022809451003.htm |archive-date = 27 December 2007 |df = dmy-all}}</ref> During Mbeki's official visit to [[Sudan]] in 2005, he was awarded Sudan's Insignia of Honour in recognition of his role in resolving conflicts and working for development in the Continent.<ref name="sudanhonour">{{cite web |year = 2005 |url = http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/show.asp?type=pr&include=president/pr/2005/pr0102.htm |title = Joint communique of the official visit to the Republic of the Sudan by his Excellency President Thabo Mbeki, 30 December 2004 to 2&nbsp;January 2005 |publisher = Department of Foreign Affairs |access-date = 19 December 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080103023445/http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/show.asp?type=pr&include=president%2Fpr%2F2005%2Fpr0102.htm |archive-date = 3 January 2008 |url-status = dead |df = dmy-all}}</ref> In 2007, Mbeki was made a [[Venerable Order of Saint John|Knight of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem]] at St George's Cathedral in [[Cape Town]] by the current grand prior, [[Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester]].<ref name="orderstjohn">{{cite web|year=2007|url=http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=308051|title=Mbeki admitted to Order of St John|work=Mail & Guardian|access-date=16 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071227072130/http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=%2Fbreaking_news%2Fbreaking_news__national%2F&articleid=308051|archive-date=27 December 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Awards===
Mbeki was awarded the Good Governance Award in 1997 by the US-based [[Corporate Council on Africa]].<ref name="goodgovernance">{{cite web |year = 1997 |url = http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/1997/04210w71197.htm |title = Deputy President Thabo Mbeki to receive Good Governance Award |publisher = Office of the Executive Deputy President Mbeki |access-date = 19 December 2007 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071227155242/http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/1997/04210w71197.htm |archive-date = 27 December 2007 |df = dmy-all}}</ref> He received the Newsmaker of the year award from Pretoria News Press Association in 2000<ref name="timeline" /> and repeated the honour in 2008, this time under the auspices of media research company Monitoring South Africa.<ref>South African Press Agency. "Former President Thabo Mbeki is newsmaker of the year." ''[[The Times]]'' (South Africa), 11 December 2008.</ref> In honour of his commitment to democracy in the new South Africa, Mbeki was awarded the [[Oliver Tambo]]/Johnny Makatini Freedom Award in 2000.<ref name="timeline" /> Mbeki was awarded the Peace and Reconciliation Award at the Gandhi Awards for Reconciliation in [[Durban]] in 2003.<ref name="peaceaward">{{cite web |year = 2003 |url = http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2003/03060609461009.htm |title = President Mbeki receives Peace and Reconciliation Award |publisher = the Presidency |access-date = 19 December 2007 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071227155256/http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2003/03060609461009.htm |archive-date = 27 December 2007 |df = dmy-all}}</ref> In 2004, Mbeki was awarded the Good Brother Award by Washington, D.C.'s National Congress of Black Women for his commitment to gender equality and the emancipation of women in South Africa.<ref name="goodbrother">{{cite web |year = 2004 |url = http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2004/04090908151002.htm |title = President Thabo Mbeki to receive Good Brother Award |publisher = Department of Foreign Affairs |access-date = 19 December 2007 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071227155303/http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2004/04090908151002.htm |archive-date = 27 December 2007 |df = dmy-all}}</ref> In 2005, he was also awarded the [[Champions of the Earth|Champion of the Earth Award]] by the United Nations.<ref name="champion">{{cite web |year=2005 |url=http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=430&ArticleID=4769&l=en |title=UNEP Names Seven 'Champions of the Earth' |publisher=United Nations Environment Programme |access-date=19 December 2007 |archive-date=12 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071212031513/http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=430&ArticleID=4769&l=en |url-status=dead }}</ref> During the European-wide Action Week Against Racism in 2005, Mbeki was awarded the Rotterdamse Jongeren Raad (RJR) Antidiscrimination Award by the Netherlands.<ref name="racismaward">{{cite web |year = 2005 |url = http://www.united.non-profit.nl/pages/rep05mrt.htm#NET |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20051219123333/http://www.united.non-profit.nl/pages/rep05mrt.htm#NET |url-status = dead |archive-date = 19 December 2005 |title = NETHERLANDS: Dutch NGOs united their forces to fight against growing racism |publisher = [[UNITED for Intercultural Action]] |access-date = 19 December 2007}}</ref> In 2006, he was awarded the Presidential Award for his outstanding service to economic growth and investor confidence in South Africa and Africa and for his role in the international arena by the South African Chambers of Commerce and Industry.<ref name="chambersaward">{{cite web |year = 2006 |url = http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2006/06051016451002.htm |title = President Thabo Mbeki to attend the annual general conference of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry South Africa (CHAMSA) |publisher = The Presidency |access-date = 19 December 2007 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071227155326/http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2006/06051016451002.htm |archive-date = 27 December 2007 |df = dmy-all}}</ref> In 2007 Mbeki was awarded the [[Confederation of African Football]]'s Order of Merit for his contribution to football on the continent.<ref name="footballmerit">{{cite web |year = 2007 |url = http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/sa_teaching_the_world/mbeki_awarded_cafs_order_of_merit.html |title = Mbeki awarded CAF's Order of Merit |work = The Good News |access-date = 19 December 2007 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071227153128/http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/sa_teaching_the_world/mbeki_awarded_cafs_order_of_merit.html |archive-date = 27 December 2007 |df = dmy-all}}</ref>

===Patronages===
* Thabo Mbeki Foundation
* Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute, an institute of the [[University of South Africa]] in partnership with the Thabo Mbeki Foundation
* Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library
* Thabo Mbeki School for Public and International Affairs based in UNISA.

=== Foreign honours ===
{{flag|Cuba}}:
* [[File:CUB Order of Jose Marti 2nd type (after 1979) ribbon.svg|70x70px]] Medal of the [[Order of José Martí]] (2001)<ref>{{cite web |title=Image of CASTRO DECORATES SOUTH AFRICA'S MBEKI IN CUBA, 2001-03-27 (photo) |url=https://www.bridgemanimages.com/en/noartistknown/castro-decorates-south-africa-s-mbeki-in-cuba-2001-03-27-photo/photograph/asset/8317880 |website=www.bridgemanimages.com |access-date=3 March 2024}}</ref>

{{flag|Italy}}:
* [[File:Cordone di gran Croce di Gran Cordone OMRI BAR.svg|70x70px]] Knight Grand Cross with Collar [[Order of Merit of the Italian Republic]] (2002)<ref>{{cite web |title=Cavaliere di Gran Croce Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana |url=https://www.quirinale.it/onorificenze/ricerca/insegna/11 |access-date=3 March 2024|language=it}}</ref>

{{flag|Jamaica}}:
* [[File:JAM Order of Excellence sash ribbon.png|70x70px]] Member of the [[Order of Excellence (Jamaica)|Order of Excellence]] (2003)<ref name = "OE">{{cite web|title=Order of Excellence (OE)|url=http://opm.gov.jm/awards/order-of-excellence-oe/|publisher=Office of the Prime Minister [Jamaica]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160621001853/http://opm.gov.jm/awards/order-of-excellence-oe/|archive-date=21 June 2016|access-date=16 June 2022|url-status=dead}}</ref>

{{flag|Zambia}}:
* [[File:ZAM Order of the Eagle of Zambia ribbon.svg|70x70px]] Grand Commander of the [[Order of the Eagle of Zambia]] (2003)<ref>{{cite news |title=Zambia: Kaunda Awarded the Grand Order of the Eagle of Zambia |url=https://allafrica.com/stories/200301160210.html |access-date=3 March 2024 |date=16 January 2003}}</ref>

{{flag|United Kingdom}}:
* [[File:Order of the Bath UK ribbon.svg|70x70px]] Knight Grand Cross of the [[Order of the Bath]] (2007)<ref>{{cite web|date=2017-04-27|title=Kufuor appointed Senior Grand Warden of UK Freemason Lodge|url=https://citifmonline.com/2017/04/kufuor-appointed-senior-grand-warden-of-uk-freemason-lodge/|access-date=2021-01-09|website=Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always|language=en-US}}</ref>
* [[File:Order of St John (UK) ribbon -vector.svg|70x70px]] Knight of the [[Order of Saint John (chartered 1888)|Order of Saint John]] (2007)<ref>{{cite web |title=T Mbeki to be received as knight of Order of St John, 10 May |url=https://www.gov.za/news/t-mbeki-be-received-knight-order-st-john-10-may-08-may-2007 |website=www.gov.za |access-date=3 March 2024}}</ref>
* [[File:UK Order St-Michael St-George ribbon.svg|70x70px]] Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the [[Order of St Michael and St George]] (2000)<ref name="parliament.uk">{{Cite web |url=http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2009-2154/DEP2009-2154.doc |title=Archived copy |access-date=9 January 2021 |archive-date=22 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140422054211/http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2009-2154/DEP2009-2154.doc |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|South Africa|Socialism|Biography
}}

* [[History of the African National Congress]]
* [[Operation Vula]]
* [[2008 South African presidential election]]
* [[Frank Chikane]] 
* [[Joel Netshitenzhe]]
* [[Bulelani Ngcuka]]

==References==
{{Reflist|25em}}

== Further reading ==
'''Short profiles:'''
* [https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/may/29/southafrica "The great persuader"]. ''The Guardian''. 29 May 1999.
* [https://www.economist.com/special-report/2005/01/20/a-man-of-two-faces "A man of two faces"]. ''The Economist''. 20 January 2005. {{ISSN|0013-0613}}.
* [[Andrew Gowers|Gowers, Andrew]] (21 February 2005). [https://www.ft.com/content/bf96715a-8442-11d9-ad81-00000e2511c8 "A man in a hurry"]. ''Financial Times''.
* [[Donald G. McNeil Jr.|McNeil, Donald G.]] (4 June 1999). [https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/060499safrica-mbeki-profile.html "An intellectual guerrilla: Thabo Mbeki"]. ''New York Times''.
* [[Alec Russell|Russell, Alec]] (21 September 2008). [https://www.ft.com/content/0433e6b6-87d3-11dd-b114-0000779fd18c "Thabo Mbeki: Aloof leader who fell from grace"]. ''Financial Times''.
* [https://foreveryena.co.za/ "Forever Yena News"] (8 Spril 2025). [https://foreveryena.co.za/business/thabo-mbekis-looted-mineral-empire-corruption-genocide/ "The Genocidal Betrayal of Black Civilisation"]. ''Forever Yena''.

'''Books:'''
* Adebajo, Adekeye (2017). ''Thabo Mbeki''. Ohio University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8214-4605-8}}.
* [[Mark Gevisser|Gevisser, Mark]] (2007). ''Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred''. Jonathan Ball. {{ISBN|978-1-86842-301-9}}. (Published in the United States as ''A Legacy of Liberation: Thabo Mbeki and the Future of the South African Dream''. 2009. St. Martin's Publishing Group. {{ISBN|978-0-230-62020-9}}.)
* Glaser, Daryl (2010). ''Mbeki and After: Reflections on the Legacy of Thabo Mbeki''. NYU Press. {{ISBN|978-1-77614-144-9}}.
* Gumede, William (2008). ''Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC''. Zed Books. {{ISBN|978-1-84813-259-7}}.
* [[Frank Chikane|Chikane, Frank]] (2012). ''[[Eight Days in September|Eight Days in September: The Removal of Thabo Mbeki]]''. Picador Africa. {{ISBN|978-1-77010-221-7}}.
* Jacobs, Sean; [[Richard Calland|Calland, Richard]] (2002). ''Thabo Mbeki's World: The Politics and Ideology of the South African President''. Zed Books. {{ISBN|978-1-84277-179-2}}.
* Siko, John (2014). ''Inside South Africa's Foreign Policy: Diplomacy in Africa from Smuts to Mbeki''. I.B. Tauris. {{ISBN|978-0-85773-579-9}}.

'''Publications:'''
* Mbeki, Thabo (2002). ''Africa Define Yourself''. Tafelberg. {{ISBN|978-0-624-04097-2}}.
* Mbeki, Thabo (2022). ''Future Harbours: Letters from President Mbeki''. Faber & Faber. {{ISBN|978-1-77619-145-1}}.

== External links ==
{{sister project links||d=Q101547|c=Category:Thabo Mbeki|n=Category:Thabo Mbeki|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|s=Author:Thabo Mbeki|wikt=no|species=no}}
*{{C-SPAN|35425}}
*[https://nai.uu.se/library/resources/liberation-africa/interviews/thabo-mbeki.html Interview with Tor Sellström] (1995)
*[http://www.dirco.gov.za/docs/speeches/1998/mbek0813.htm "African renaissance statement"] (1998) 
*[https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/thabo-mbekis-letter-to-jacob-zuma Open letter to Zuma] (2008)

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