Mbeki, Thabo

South African politician, first executive deputy president from 1994 and president from 1999. As chair of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1989, he played an important role in the constitutional talks with the de Klerk government that eventually led to the adoption of a nonracial political system. In December 1997 he replaced Nelson Mandela as ANC President, and in June 1999 succeeded him as president.

An active member of the ANC from an early age, Mbeki led its student and, later, youth branches, and was, in consequence, detained for six weeks by the South African authorities in 1962. After his release he worked for the ANC in their London offices 1967–70 and subsequently underwent several months' military training in the USSR. As a leading member of the ANC, he represented it in Swaziland 1975–76 and Nigeria 1976–78.

He was director of information and publicity 1984–89 and then national chair.