South
African President Thabo Mbeki
to make State Visit to The Bahamas
NASSAU, The Bahamas---His Excellency Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki,
President of the Republic of South Africa, will make a State Visit to
The Bahamas from December 28, 2003, to January 1, 2004.
President Mbeki will be accompanied by his wife, Madame Zanele
Dlamini Mbeki, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini
Zuma, and other officials of the South African Government.
During his visit, President Mbeki will call on both the Governor-General
Her Excellency Dame Ivy Dumont, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
the Hon. Perry G. Christie, and meet with members of the Cabinet and the
Leader of the Opposition.
President Mbeki will also meet with the President of The Bahamas
Christian Council
and heads of religious denominations, as well as civic, business and
trade union leaders.
A State Dinner at Atlantis on Paradise Island and a State
Reception at Government House will be held in his honour, and he will
view the New Year’s Day Junkanoo Parade on Bay Street.
President Mbeki will make a brief visit to Freeport, Grand
Bahama, where he will be hosted by the Grand Bahama Port Authority, and
tour the Freeport Container Port Limited and the Freeport Harbour.
He will depart the Bahamas on January 1, 2004, for Haiti to
attend celebrations observing the 200th anniversary of the first black
republic in the western hemisphere.
President Mbeki, who succeeded former South African President
Nelson Mandela, was elected President on June 14, 1999 and was
inaugurated as President two days later.
He was hand-picked by Mr. Mandela after the April, 1994 general
election, to be the first Deputy President of South Africa. He was
elected as the new President of the ruling African National Congress
(ANC) in 1997.
President Mbeki, an economist, was born into the struggle for
majority rule in South Africa.
He was born June 18, 1942 in Idutywa, Queenstown, one
of four children of the late Govan and Epainette Mbeki, both teachers
and activists. Gowan Mbeki, a leading figure in the ANC in the Eastern
Cape, was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. He spent part of his sentence at the same prison with
Mr. Mandela.
President Mbeki was expelled from high school as a result of
student strikes in Lovedale in 1959 and forced to continue studies at
home.
Thereafter he moved to Johannesburg where he came
under the guidance of ANC members
and anti-apartheid campaigners Walter Sisulu and Duma Nokwe. While
studying for his British a-levels in 1960-1961, he was elected secretary
of the African Students’ Association (ASA), and undertook first year
economics degree as an external student with the University of London in
1961-1962. He graduated with a Master of Economics degree from the
University of Sussex in 1966.
President Mbeki, who had left South Africa in 1962 under orders
from the ANC, remained active in student politics ands played a
prominent role in building the youth and student sections of the ANC in
exile.
Following his studies, he worked at the London office with the
late Oliver Tambo, a former leader of the ANC in exile and law partner
of Mr. Mandela, and Yusuf Dadoo., another ANC activist, before being
sent to the former Soviet Union in 1970 for military training.
Later that year he arrived in Lusaka, Zambia, and was appointed
assistant secretary of the Revolutionary Council. In 1973-1974, he held
discussions with the Botswana Government about opening an ANC office
there. In 1975, he was acting ANC representative in Swaziland.
He served as ANC representative to Nigeria until 1978. Upon his
return to
Lusaka, he became political secretary in the office of Oliver
Tambo, and then director of information, playing a major role in turning
the international media against apartheid. His other role in the 1970s
was in building the ANC in Swaziland and underground structures inside
the country.
During the 1980s. President Mbeki rose to head the Department of
Information and publicly co-ordinated diplomatic campaigns to involve
more white South Africans in anti-apartheid activities.
In 1989, he was appointed to head the ANC Department of
International Affairs, and was a key figure in the ANC’s negotiations
with the white minority government, which led to the end of the
apartheid regime and the new Government of National Unity, of which he
became first Deputy President.
Foreign Minister Zuma, 54, has held the position since June 17,
1999. She also served as Minister of Health from 1994 to June 16, 1999.
Dr. Zuma matriculated at the Amanzimtoti Training College in
1967, received a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology and Botany from
the University of Zululand in 1971, an MB ChB from the University of
Bristol in 1978 and a diploma in Tropical Child Health from the School
of Tropical Medicine, University of Liverpool in 1986.
An ANC activist since her student days, Dr. Zuma served as
vice-president of the South African Students Organization (SASO) in
1976, as chairperson of the ANC Youth Section, Great Britain from 1977
to 1978, and vice chairperson of the Regional Political Committee
of the ANC in Great Britain from 1978 to 1988.
In
addition, Dr. Zuma has served as chairperson of the ANC Southern Natal
Region Health Committee, 1990-1992; member of the Executive Committee,
Southern Natal Region of the ANC, 1990-1993; and chairperson, Southern
Natal Region of the
She also served as a member of the Gender Advisory Committee of
the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), deputy
chairperson of the UNAIDS Board in 1995; member of the Steering
Committee, National AIDS Co-ordinating Committee of South Africa in
1992; and the ANC Health Department, Lusaka, Zambia, 1989-1990.
Dr. Zuma has been awarded honorary Doctors of Laws degrees from
the University of Natal in 1995 and the University of Bristol in 1996.
Happy 30th Independence
Bahamas