Mbeki has used his position on the world stage to call for an end to global apartheid, a term he uses to describe the disparity between a small minority of rich nations and a great number of impoverished states in the world, arguing that a " global human society based on poverty for many and prosperity for a few, characterised by islands of wealth, surrounded by a sea of poverty, is unsustainable ".

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.

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.

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.

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

Mbeki devoted his life to the ANC and during his years in exile was given increased responsibility.

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.

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.

Mbeki, as an ANC insider and while president, was a major force behind the continued neoliberal structure of the South African economy.

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.

In a leaked letter to Jacob Zuma in October 2008, just-resigned President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki alluded to the role the ANC created for her in the anti-apartheid activism:

An article Also in 2000, the Johannesburg Mail & Guardian reported that in a leaked text for a speech Mbeki was to give to an ANC caucus, Mbeki claimed that the CIA and Western drug companies were secretly promoting the view that HIV causes AIDS in order to increase sales of anti-HIV drugs.

However, through the Tripartite Alliance and the sitting of many SACP members on the ANC's NEC, the SACP has wielded influence from within the ANC, often serving as an ideological opposition against the presidency and socio-economic policies of Thabo Mbeki ( 1999 – 2008 ); this became most apparent with the ouster of Mbeki from the presidencies of both the party ( 2007, by vote ) and the government ( 2008, by ANC party recall ) and his eventual replacement in both offices with Jacob Zuma, who is widely seen as being more conciliatory to the ideological demands of both the SACP and COSATU.

Shilowa resigned in protest against the decision by the ANC national executive committee ( NEC ) to remove former president Thabo Mbeki from office.

The African National Congress ( ANC ) of President Thabo Mbeki, which came to power after the end of the apartheid system in 1994, was re-elected with an increased majority.

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.

Mbeki was forced to resign by the ANC in September 2008.

In 2005, an Indian Country Today editorial, titled " Hurricane Katrina Uncovers a Tale of Two Americas ", was quoted by South African President Thabo Mbeki in a letter to the ANC Today, published by the African National Congress.

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.

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

" 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.

High-ranking diplomatic visits to South Africa repeatedly attempted to persuade Mbeki to take a harder line with Robert Mugabe over violent state-sponsored attacks on political opponents and opposition movements, expropriation of white-owned farms by ZANU-PF allied " war veterans ", sanctioning against the press, and infringements on the independence of the judiciary.

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.

On 5 February 2006 Mbeki said in an interview with SABC television that Zimbabwe had missed a chance to resolve its political crisis in 2004 when secret talks to agree on a new constitution ended in failure.

It was disbanded on 9 July 2002 by its last chairperson, South African President Thabo Mbeki, and replaced by the African Union ( AU ).

* Mbeki warns on China-Africa ties

:" There was no surprise in the fact that Mandela, Sisulu, Mbeki, Motsoaledi, Mlangeni, and Goldberg were found guilty on all four counts.

On 26 June 1980 the Secretary General of the African National Congress, Alfred Nzo, announced the conferring of the Isitwalandwe Medal, the ANC's highest honour, on Govan Mbeki.

Mbeki was not present to receive the award, because he was serving a life imprisonment sentence on Robben Island.

Govan Mbeki was released from custody after serving 24 years in the Robben Island prison on 5 November 1987.

However, when Coetzee won his Nobel Prize, Mbeki congratulated him " on behalf of the South African nation and indeed the continent of Africa ".

Thabo Mbeki was elected president ( unopposed ) by the new Assembly on 14 June 1999, succeeding Nelson Mandela.

The official opening by President Thabo Mbeki took place during the inauguration ceremony on 10 November 2005.

Although the Cabinet voted to reaffirm that South African AIDS policy is based on the evidence that HIV causes AIDS, former President Thabo Mbeki continued to support the AIDS denialist position, as did his Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, acting for President Thabo Mbeki, signed it into law on 29 November, and it became law the following day, one day before the Constitutional Court's order would otherwise have come into force.

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 received worldwide criticism for his AIDS stance.

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.

Mbeki attended primary school in Idutywa and Butterworth and acquired a high school education at Lovedale, Alice.

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

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

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.

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.