Thabo Mbeki, nine and a half years in office as successor to Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s president, resigned on September 21st, 2008 after losing a power struggle to Jacob Zuma, his former deputy and likely political heir.
The resignation brought an end to a once-promising presidency during which Mr. Mbeki accrued both celebration and disrepute. He became internationally notorious for his views about AIDS, joining maverick scientists in questioning whether a virus was the cause of the illness. He led the resistance to antiretroviral treatment, acting as if the AIDS epidemic were a defamatory plot against Africans and a con job by avaricious pharmaceutical companies. This intransigence, critics say, sent countless thousands to needless deaths.
Mr. Mbeki was forced to resign within the same week that some African leaders have praised him for what they hail as a landmark achievement, the brokering of a deal signed Monday in Zimbabwe between President Robert Mugabe and his opposition.
Source: New York Times
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