Thabo Mbeki

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Thabo Mbeki (2003)
Thabo Mbeki

Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (born June 18, 1942 in Idutywa , Cape Province , now Eastern Cape ) is a former South African politician ( African National Congress , ANC). From 1999 to 2008 he was President of South Africa. He is the son of longtime ANC activist Govan Mbeki and the older brother of Moeletsi Mbeki and belongs to the Xhosa people .

Life and political career

Mbeki went into exile in Britain in 1962 and studied economics there , and in 1970/71 he completed military training in the Soviet Union . Since 1971 he was a member of the governing body of the African National Congress (ANC) and represented it in several countries. From 1984 he acted first as information secretary and later as foreign policy spokesman for the ANC. He also represented him in negotiations with the white minority government of South Africa after his return from exile in 1990.

In 1994, after the first free elections in the country's history, Mbeki became Vice President in the National Unity Government under Nelson Mandela . In December 1997 Mbeki Mandela succeeded as Chairman of the ANC and on June 16, 1999 as President of the Republic of South Africa. After the 2004 election , he was re-elected by parliament on April 23 and sworn in on April 27, the tenth anniversary of the official end of apartheid (the beginning of the 1994 election).

From July 2002 to July 2003 he was President of the African Union .

On June 14, 2005, Mbeki dismissed ANC vice chairman Jacob Zuma from the position of vice president on allegations of corruption. On December 18, 2007, at the ANC convention, Zuma won the battle vote for the office of chairman. Zuma's popularity with the people and with the ANC ultimately prevented Mbeki's political career from continuing. Mbeki could not have been elected president for a third time in 2009, but had sought to remain at the top of his party for another period.

After a trial against Jacob Zuma with allegations of corruption due to formal errors was discontinued in early September 2008, Mbeki was accused of having had political influence on the investigation. The ANC then called on September 20, 2008 on Mbeki to step down as president. The following day, Mbeki submitted his resignation to the President of Parliament, Baleka Mbete . In addition, ten ministers and three vice ministers announced their resignation. His resignation took effect on September 25; the vice-chairman of the ANC, Kgalema Motlanthe , served as president until the 2009 general election. He was replaced on May 9, 2009 by the newly elected Zuma.

Mbeki came under criticism, among other things, because of his stance on the then dictator of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe , which was sometimes interpreted by observers as support for Mugabe.

AIDS denial

South Africa is one of the hardest by the AIDS - a pandemic affected countries around the world (see also HIV / AIDS in Africa ). About 20% of the population was infected with the HI virus when Mbeki took office . Shortly after his appointment as president, Mbeki denied the scientifically proven causal connection between the HIV virus and the immunodeficiency disease AIDS.

During his own research into the cause of AIDS on the Internet, Mbeki came into contact with websites of AIDS deniers and subsequently took similar positions. For example, he claimed that it is not the HIV virus, but poverty that is the most important cause of AIDS. Although the benefit of drugs to treat HIV infection and prevent the transmission of the HIV virus from infected pregnant women to their children has been proven, he denied this benefit and supported his Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang , who gave the sick olive oil , instead of antiretroviral drugs , Recommended garlic and beetroot . She also supported the German doctor Matthias Rath in his plan to sell vitamin preparations as a medicine against AIDS.

Mbeki set up the so-called “Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel” - an advisory body to the President to fight AIDS - and invited AIDS deniers like Peter Duesberg and David Rasnick to participate in this body. Despite considerable public protests from academia and AIDS activists, Mbeki maintained his position for the next several years. It was only after several legal disputes that the South African government was forced to give antiretroviral drugs to HIV-infected pregnant women and victims of rape.

Independent estimates suggest that Mbeki's South African government's rejection of antiretroviral drugs resulted in the deaths of 330,000 to 343,000 people from AIDS and approximately 171,000 preventable new infections with HIV.

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Leander: Speech at his inauguration as President of South Africa by Thabo Mbeki, June 16 1999. September 4, 2012, accessed on June 15, 2019 (English).
  2. ^ African Union: Summit of the AU Maputo, Mozambique. July 2003, archived from the original on March 17, 2008 ; accessed on January 14, 2009 .
  3. ↑ Chris McGreal: ANC conference jeers Mbeki as Zuma gains upper hand in leadership battle . In: The Guardian, December 17, 2007, accessed September 14, 2012.
  4. ↑ Helmut Schneider: "I am innocent" . In: Der Tagesspiegel of September 13, 2008, accessed on September 14, 2012.
  5. ^ Ruling party calls on Mbeki to resign . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of September 20, 2008, accessed on September 14, 2012.
  6. ^ Tagesschau : South Africa could plunge into crisis ( memento from September 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) from September 21, 2008
  7. Jump up ↑ Karl-Ludwig G possibly: Mugabe's henchmen beat the people for election . In: Spiegel Online from June 24, 2008.
  8. ↑ The Guardian : discredited doctor's 'cure' for Aids ignites life-and-death struggle in South Africa , May 14 of 2005.
  9. ^ Kiran van Rijn: The Politics of Uncertainty: The AIDS Debate, Thabo Mbeki and the South African Government Response. In: Social History of Medicine. 2006; 19 (3): 521-538. doi : 10.1093 / shm / hkl077
  10. ^ C. Bateman: Paying the price for AIDS denialism. In: S Afr Med J. 2007 Oct; 97 (10): 912-4. PMID 18000570
  11. ↑ P. Chigwedere, G. Seage, S. Gruskin et al .: Estimating the Lost Benefits of Antiretroviral Drug Use in South Africa. In: J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2008 Oct 16. PMID 19186354
  12. ^ Nicoli Nattrass: AIDS and the Scientific Governance of Medicine in Post-Apartheid South Africa. In: African Affairs 2008 107 (427): 157-176. doi : 10.1093 / afraf / adm087
  13. ↑ a b c d e Profile Mbeki ( Memento from November 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) in Who's Who Southern Africa
  14. ↑ Mbeki is a Knight of St John in iolnews, May 10, 2007, accessed November 13, 2011.

literature

Web links

Commons : Thabo Mbeki  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Mbeki, Thabo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mbeki, Thabo Mvuyelwa (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician, President of South Africa (1999–2008)
DATE OF BIRTH June 18, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Idutywa