Mbeki in America: Mandela's heir apparent makes big impression with his intellect, sense of humor and style

Ebony, Oct, 1996 by Hans J Massaquoi

CONVENTIONAL wisdom has always subscribed to the notion that nobody can fill Nelson Mandela's shoes. That was until recently when South Africa's Executive Deputy President Thabo M. Mbeki, Mandela's heir apparent, went on a nine-day visit to the United States.

Now the consensus among Americans who met the 54-year-old charismatic South African is that, while he is not Mandela, he is a confidence-inspiring leader in his own right who is well equipped, both temperamentally and intellectually, to hold the reigns of South Africa's government. Although Mbeki refuses to openly state that he is not seeking the No. 1 post when Mandela makes good on his promise to retire by 1999, he appears to have the blessings of his boss, who recently stated that if the African National Congress elected Mbeki, "I would feel that they had made the right choice."

While on his U.S. visit, Mbeki attended the opening of the Olympic Games in Atlanta, met with President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and members of the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C., took a helicopter ride to Baltimore with the vice president, and made a two-day stop in Chicago where he attended a climactic luncheon at EBONY's lakefront headquarters.

The luncheon, which was hosted by Johnson Publishing Co. Chairman John H. Johnson in cooperation with the South African Consulate General and CAMAC Holdings, Inc., was attended by major Chicago political and business leaders, including Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, JPC President and Chief Operating Officer Linda Johnson Rice, JPC Secretary Treasurer Eunice W. Johnson, South African Consul General Bella Harrison, Spruce Corporation President Robin C. Brooks and CAMAC Holdings Inc. Chairman and CEO Kase L. Lawal. During the luncheon, the South African leader made an impassioned plea for the 2004 Olympic Games to be held in Cape Town. "As a government," he explained, "we support that bid very strongly, and one of the reasons for that is that the Olympic Games have never ever been held on the African continent. They have been to every other continent except Africa. That can't be right. And so we would like these Games to make a statement--that Africa is an equal part of the rest of the world."

Mbeki also stressed the importance of U.S. participation--both private and public--in his government's continuing struggle to overcome the daunting legacy of a shattered economy and widespread poverty left by the oppressive apartheid regime and to bring real freedom--freedom from want--to all South Africans.

While in Atlanta, his first stop in the United States, Mbeki visited the South Africa Olympic Pavilion to give encouragement to his country's athletes, and met with members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to put in an informal bid for Cape Town to host the Games in 2004. He also took time to meet with prominent U.S. civil rights leaders, including Coretta Scott King and the Rev. Joseph Lowery, and with his countryman, retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

During his Washington, D. C., visit, the South African leader addressed a breakfast hosted by the Freedom Forum, then participated in the opening plenary session of the U.S.-South African Binational Commission, which he and Vice President Gore co-chair and which was formed to promote U.S.-South African technical and business cooperation. The day culminated in a Binational Commission dinner, also attended by Vice President Gore, in the Grand Ballroom of Washington's Four Seasons Hotel.

Besides his visit to Johnson Publishing Co. headquarters, Mbeki addressed the prestigious Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, met with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and addressed the Chicago Stock Exchange, where he was presented with a Michael Jordan jersey and rang the traditional bell that signals the day's opening of the Exchange.

Praising Chicagoans for "the enthusiasm with which they had taken up the common struggle against apartheid," Mbeki stressed the need for strengthening the partnership that, he said, exists between Chicago and South Africa. "One of the reasons we thought we should come to Chicago," Mbeki said, "was because we could see what had happened with some of the corporations based here, Johnson Publishing, Sara Lee, Motorola, McDonald's. For when the time came to come into South Africa, they didn't hesitate; they didn't say that perhaps the level of risk is too high.... The goal we must pursue is a better life for all South Africans. And the critical element with regard to that better life is jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs!...But to create those jobs, we need Sara Lee, we need Johnson Publishing, we need you who sit in this room...."

Mbeki explained that in order to begin to make a dent in his country's staggering unemployment problem, the South African economy must grow by at least 6 percent by the turn of the century. "Two years ago," he added, "that economy was recording negative growth rates. It has now reached about 3 percent." He expressed confidence that 6 percent growth was attainable, adding, "But we believe that we can only do it in partnership with yourselves, a partnership from which you would benefit and a partnership clearly from which we would benefit."