2- Africa’s Renaissance Man

Abstract

Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC by William Mervin Gumede Zebra Press, 2005, ISBN 1-77007-092-3, Rand 199.95 ($30)

South Africa’s president since 1999, Thabo Mbeki, remains an enigma to many. Following the saintly footsteps of founding president Nelson Mandela was never going to be easy. Mandela used his incredible charisma to provide political stability to the “new” South Africa’s fledgling institutions. Even as deputy president, Mbeki sought to overcome this deficiency through
visionary leadership. He called for an African Renaissance as a doctrine for Africa’s political and socio-economic renewal and the reintegration of the continent into the global economy. The African Renaissance does not naively assume that this renewal is already underway: it merely seeks to set out an inspiring vision and prescribe the policy actions that could create the conditions for Africa’s rebirth. With Mbeki as chief architect, the drafting of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in 2001 and the birth of the African Union (AU) in 2002 were clearly attempts to add policy flesh to the skeletal bones of the Renaissance vision.