tor in 1993 and early 1994. That made Mbeki, aged fifty-one, heir-appar-
ent to the seventy-six-year-old president. Son of a veteran ANC and Com-
munist party stalwart and Robben Island prisoner, Mbeki had been in
exile since 1961. After completing a master's degree in economics at Sus-
sex University in England and undergoing military training in the Soviet
Union, Mbeki became Oliver Tambo's right-hand man in the ANC in exile.
He is a gifted, hard-working, energetic man, at ease with educated people,
but he lacks Mandela's liberation-struggle credentials and common touch.
His collected essays, Africa: The Time Has Come, reveal a man repulsed
by racism, intensely proud of being an African, and imbued with a vision
of a South African democracy, an African Renaissance, and a global sys-
tem purged of capitalist excess.V De Klerk, as leader of the National
party, assumed office as second deputy president.
In accordance with their share of the vote in the election, eighteen ANC
members, six National party members, and three Inkatha Freedom party
(IFP)members formed the rest of the cabinet. Two of the cabinet ministers
were women. Mandela placed ANC colleagues in most of the important
portfolios; but he gave the National party finance, where experience was