President of the Republic of South Africa From 14 June 1999 to September 2008.
Member of the Steering Committee of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
Academic Qualifications
Attended primary school at Idutywa and Butterworth and high school at Lovedale, Alice.
Expelled from school as a result of student strikes in 1959 and forced to continue studies at home.
Sat for matriculation examinations at St John's High School, Umtata in 1959.
Completed British Advanced level examinations between 1960 and 1961.
Undertook first year economics degree as an external student with the University of London between 1961 and 1962.
Master of Economics degree from University of Sussex (1966).
Career/Positions/Memberships/Other Activities
Joined African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) while a student at the Lovedale Institute in 1956.
He was involved in underground activities in the Pretoria-Witwatersrand area after the African National Congress (ANC) was banned in 1960.
He was involved in mobilising the students and youth in support of the ANC call for a stay away in protest against the creation of a Republic in 1961.
He was elected Secretary of the African Students' Association in December 1961.
He left South Africa together with other students on instructions of the ANC in 1962 and went to the then Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, the then Tanganyika, now Tanzania and the United Kingdom (UK) to study.
He continued with political activities as a university student in the UK, mobilising the international student community against apartheid.
Worked for the ANC office in London from 1967 to 1970. during this period he underwent military training in the then Soviet Union.
He served as Assistant Secretary to the Revolutionary Council of the ANC in Lusaka in 1971.
He was sent to Botswana in 1973 where he was among the first ANC leaders to have contact with exiled and visiting members of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). As a result of his contact and discussions with the BCM, some of the leading members of this organisation found their way into the ranks of the ANC.
The focus of his activities during this time was to consolidate the underground structures of the ANC and to mobilise the people inside South Africa.
He engaged the Botswana Government in discussions to open an ANC office in that country. He left Botswana in 1974.
He was sent to Swaziland as acting representative of the ANC. Part of his task was the internal mobilisation and the creation of underground structures.
He became a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC in 1975.
In December 1976 he was sent to Nigeria as a representative of the ANC. While there, he played a major role in assisting students from South Africa to relocate in an unfamiliar environment.
He left Nigeria and returned to Lusaka in February 1978 where he He was appointed Political Secretary in the Office of the President of the ANC.
He served as Director of the Department of Information and Publicity between 1984 and 1989.
In 1985 he was re-elected to the National Executive Committee.
Served as Director of Information and as Secretary for Presidential Affairs.
He was a member of the ANC's Political and Military Council.
In 1985 He was part of the delegation that met the South African business community led by the Chairman of Anglo American, Gavin Relly, at Mfuwe, in Zambia.
He led a delegation of the ANC to Dakar, Senegal, where talks were held with a delegation from the Institute for a Democratic Alternative for South Africa (IDASA) in 1987.
In 1989 He led the ANC delegation which held secret talks with the South African Government which led to agreements about the unbanning of the ANC and the release of political prisoners.
He was part of the delegation which engaged the National Party Government in talks about talks. He participated in the Groote Schuur and Pretoria deliberations, which resulted in the agreements which became known as the Groote Schuur and Pretoria Minutes in 1990.
He had participated in all subsequent negotiations leading to the adoption of the interim Constitution for the new South Africa.
In 1993 he was elected Chairperson of the ANC. The election to this post meant succeeding the late former President and Chairperson of the ANC, Oliver R Tambo, with whom he had a close working relationship.
He served as Executive Deputy President of the Republic of South African from 1994 to 13 June 1999.
He served as Chairperson of the African Union from July 2002 to July 2003.
He was President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1997 to 2007 .
Positions last held/Career/Memberships/Other Activities
He was awarded the Honorary Doctorate by the Rand Afrikaans University on 17 September 1999.
He was awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Laws by the Glasgow Caledonian University on 19 May 2000.
He was nominated Newsmaker of the Year by Pretoria Press Club on 22 August 2000.
