Thabo Mbeki

Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (Idutywa, June 18, 1942) is a South African politician, 2nd president of the country between 1999 and 2008.

Born in the Transkei region of South Africa (Xhosa ethnicity), Mbeki is the son of Epitanette and Govan Mbeki (1910–2001), both teachers. His parents were activists of the African National Congress (ANC) and his father was also a member of the South African Communist Party. Mbeki has a master's degree in Economics from the University of Sussex. During the apartheid era he was taken prisoner and had to spend several years in exile in the United Kingdom, returning to his country after the release of Nelson Mandela.

Mbeki has been a member of the ANC since he was 14, and has been its representative abroad since 1967. He was appointed head of the ANC's information office in 1984 and of its international affairs office in 1989. He was elected deputy of South Africa in May 1994 when the first elections with universal suffrage were held. He was elected successor to Nelson Mandela as president of the ANC in December 1997 and as President of the republic after the 1999 elections (taking office on June 16); He was reelected to a second term in April 2004.

Mbeki has led the creation of the NEPAD economic program and the African Union and has had great influence on peace negotiations in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She has been one of the standard bearers in the dissemination of the concept of the African Renaissance.

During the negotiations after Nelson Mandela's release, which finally led in 1994 to the first elections with universal suffrage in South Africa, Mbeki was the person in charge of the economic part of these negotiations. Ultimately, the concessions made during these economic negotiations led to the de facto impossibility of putting into practice the promises made by the African National Congress of wealth redistribution, leaving most of the country's wealth in the hands of its former owners, the whites who for years amassed this wealth thanks to apartheid.

Thabo Mbeki reoriented the ANC to the center and openly criticized his allies in the Tripartite Alliance (ANC, Cosatu, Communist Party), whom he had described as "ultra-leftists".

In September 2008 he coerced the liberation leader of neighboring Zimbabwe Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) to accept a national unity agreement with President Robert Mugabe, considered by his opponents a dictator and responsible for countless crimes against humanity.

Thabo Mbeki and the HIV debate

During his term as president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki questioned the official scientific consensus that AIDS is caused by a virus, HIV, and that antiretroviral drugs can save the lives of those suspected of being HIV-positive. Instead, it raised a debate between the points of view of a small group of dissident scientists, who expose other causes for AIDS, and those scientists who support the official version. This debate occurred at the celebration of the 1st and 2nd meetings of the XIII International AIDS Conference (May and August 2000)

His health minister throughout his term was Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, a defender of natural and home remedies, such as "garlic, beet and lemon". Faced with criticism, he included in the ministry team, in his second term, to renowned figures against AIDS, such as Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge. However, she only kept her in office for three years, dismissing her after defending her position in favor of scientifically proven methods abroad and thus opposing Tshabalala-Msimang.

Resignation from the ANC

On September 20, 2008, the African National Congress requested his resignation for having conspired against the party's leader, Jacob Zuma, to have him prosecuted for corruption. Zuma had been removed as Vice President in 2005 after a financial adviser in his department was prosecuted. Zuma was exonerated by the Petermaritzburg High Court on September 12, 2008. Infighting within the African National Congress broke out in December 2007 when Zuma prevailed over Mbeki.

Mbeki denied the accusations and described them as insults, unsupported by proven facts. He nevertheless agreed to resign before the end of his term.

On September 25, 2008 he was replaced by Kgalema Motlanthe, vice president of the African National Congress.

Thabo Mbeki is very critical of the military operations of Western countries against Libya in 2011: "We thought that we had finally put an end to five hundred years of slavery, imperialism, colonialism and neocolonialism (...). (...) But the Western powers have unilaterally and shamelessly assumed the right to decide the future of Libya. The president of the African Union, Jean Ping, affirms that this position is "widely shared" by the Africans.