Thabo Mbeki
President

(pronounced "TAH-bow em-BECK-ee")

"Affirmative action isn't a philosophy. It's not an end in itself. It's an instrument to get a more equal society, broadly representative of South African demography."

The Republic of South Africa, located at the southern tip of the African continent, is bordered to its northeast by Swaziland, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, to the north by Botswana, and to the northwest by Namibia. Lesotho, an independent kingdom, is an enclave within South Africa. The country has a total land area of 1,219,584 sq km (470,882 sq mi).

South Africa's population, estimated at 43,647,658 in July 2002, is composed of four distinct groups: 75.2% black, consisting mainly of Xhosa, Zulu, and Sotho, (collectively known as Bantu); 13.6% white, comprising Dutch-descended Afrikaners and whites of British descent; 8.6% of mixed heritage ("colored"); and 2.6% Asian, primarily from the Indian subcontinent. Reflective of this multicultural society, there...