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 ANC Women’s League, 1991 to 1993.

            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.