Thabo Mbeki was born on June 18, 1942 in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. He joined the ANC Youth league in 1956 at the age of 14 and left South Africa for exile in 1962.

Mr. Mbeki read Economics at Sussex University in England up to master’s level. Thereafter, he underwent military training in the then Soviet Union. On completion, he joined the ANC Headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia where he remained until 1990 when the ANC was unbanned. Mr. Mbeki has been a member of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) since 1975.

He was appointed Deputy President of South Africa in 1994 and twice elected President in 1999 and 2004. On September 23, 2008, Mr. Mbeki resigned as President of South Africa after being asked to do so by the ANC NEC. He is currently the Chairperson of the AU High Level Implementation Panel for Sudan, which is charged with the task of facilitating the end of conflict in the Republic of Sudan and also heads the AU-UN High Level on Illicit Financial Outflows from Africa