Thabo Mbeki, ex-president of South Africa and ex-president Jerry John Rawlings, Mr. Kufour's fiercest critic, were among the dignitaries who attended the ceremony.

His funeral was attended by the entire high command of the ANC, and by most of the highest officials in the country, including both Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki.

" Naudé's official state funeral on Saturday 18 September 2004 was attended by President Thabo Mbeki, other dignitaries, and high-ranking ANC officials.

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.

Mbeki proposes doing this by, among other things, encouraging education and the reversal of the " brain drain " of African intellectuals.

Govan Mbeki had come to the rural Eastern Cape as a political activist after earning two university degrees ; he urged his family to make the ANC their family, and of his children, Thabo Mbeki is the one who most clearly followed that instruction, joining the party at age 14 and devoting his life to it thereafter.

Mbeki married his wife Zanele ( née Dlamini ) at Farnham Castle, in the United Kingdom, in 1974.

Mbeki has sometimes been characterised as remote and academic, although in his second campaign for Presidency in 2004, many observers described him as finally relaxing into a more traditional campaign mode, sometimes dancing at events and even kissing babies.

Mbeki appears to have been at ease with the Internet and willing to quote from it.

The full meeting of the Commonwealth had failed in a consensus to decide on the issue, and they tasked the previous, present ( at the time ), and future leaders of Commonwealth ( respectively President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, John Howard of Australia, and Mbeki of South Africa ) to come to a consensus between them over the issue.

Thabo Mbeki, keynote speaker at the opening plenary session, wrote the book's prologue.

Mbeki received international recognition for his political achievements including the renaming ( at Mandela's suggestion ) of the recently opened Health building at Glasgow Caledonian University.

The Govan Mbeki Health Building was inaugurated in 2001 at a ceremony featuring his son Thabo.

* Photograph of Nauruan President René Harris ( at right ) at a meeting with South African President Thabo Mbeki, 4 March 2002.

On 7 December 2005, then South African President Thabo Mbeki opened the new Maropeng Visitors Centre at the site.

Being openly critical of the apartheid system during that era, both at home and abroad, he has recently been quoted by President Thabo Mbeki as the man who called upon the Apartheid leadership to " do something brave " and create partnership with the black majority in the ' 80s.

Zuma became the President of the ANC on 18 December 2007 after defeating incumbent Thabo Mbeki at the ANC conference in Polokwane.

However, journalists at the Mail and Guardian claim to have solid information supporting the widespread suspicion that President Mbeki suspended Pikoli as part of a bid to shield Police Commissioner Selebi.

* 11 July-Lionel Bernstein, Dennis Goldberg, Arthur Goldreich, Bob Hepple, James Kantor, Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Andrew Mlangeni, Elias Motsoaledi, Walter Sisulu and Harold Wolpe, all senior African National Congress membersed at Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, Johannesburg

President George W. Bush speaks with President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa on Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at the White House.

A letter signed by President Thabo Mbeki and read at Hendrickse's funeral saluted him as a " freedom fighter and architect of democracy ".

Other opportunities soon followed, including recitals given for Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki and a performance for the United Nations delegates at the Earth Summit 2002 in Johannesburg.

However, journalists at the Mail and Guardian claim to have solid information supporting the widespread suspicion that President Mbeki suspended Pikoli as part of a bid to shield Police Commissioner Selebi.

Following Zuma's accession to the ANC leadership in 2007 and Mbeki's resignation as president in 2008, the Mbeki faction of former ministers led by Mosiuoa Lekota split away from the ANC to form the Congress of the People.

The atrocity was reportedly condemned strongly by South African president Thabo Mbeki and Winnie Mandela, among others, who openly spoke in favour of Marike de Klerk.

The talks were mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki.

On 15 September 2008, the leaders of the 14-member Southern African Development Community witnessed the signing of the power-sharing agreement, brokered by South African leader Thabo Mbeki.

* 1987 – Govan Mbeki is released from custody after serving 24 years of a life sentence for terrorism and treason.

At the start of 2000, then President Thabo Mbeki vowed to promote economic growth and foreign investment by relaxing restrictive labour laws, stepping up the pace of privatisation, and cutting unneeded governmental spending.

He is also the brother of Moeletsi Mbeki.

Thabo Mbeki was the executive face of government in South Africa from 1994.

Mbeki created employment in the middle sectors of the economy and oversaw a fast growing black middle class with the implementation of BEE.

Mbeki has mediated in difficult and complex issues on the African continent including Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo ( DRC ), Côte d ' Ivoire, and some important peace agreements.

Mbeki has received worldwide criticism for his AIDS stance.

Thabo Mbeki has also been criticized for responding on negative comments made about governance by accusing them of racism.

Born and raised in Mbewuleni, what is now the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, Mbeki is one of four children of Epainette and Govan Mbeki.

His parents were both teachers and activists in a rural area of ANC strength, and Mbeki describes himself as " born into the struggle "; a portrait of Karl Marx sat on the family mantelpiece, and a portrait of Mohandas Gandhi was on the wall.

During this time, the ANC was banned and Mbeki was involved in underground activities in the Pretoria-Witwatersrand area.

In December 1961, Mbeki was elected secretary of the African Students ' Association.

After leaving the Eastern Cape, Thabo Mbeki lived in Johannesburg, working with Walter Sisulu.

Mbeki spent the early years of his exile in the United Kingdom.

In 1973, Mbeki was sent to Botswana, where he engaged the Botswana government in discussions to open an ANC office there.

While in exile, his brother Jama Mbeki, a supporter of the rival Pan Africanist Congress, was killed by agents of the Lesotho government in 1982 while attempting to assist the Lesotho Liberation Army.