Zanele Dlamini Mbeki
| Zanele Dlamini Mbeki | |
|---|---|
| First Lady of South Africa | |
|
In role 14 June 1999 – 24 September 2008 |
|
| President | Thabo Mbeki |
| Preceded by | Graça Machel |
| Succeeded by | Mapula Motlanthe |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1938 (age 78–79) Alexandra, Gauteng, South Africa |
| Spouse(s) | Thabo Mbeki (m. 1974) |
| Alma mater |
University of the Witwatersrand London School of Economics Brandeis University |
| Profession | Social worker |
| Religion | Methodist |
Zanele Dlamini Mbeki is the former first lady of South Africa and the wife of former South African President, Thabo Mbeki.
Zanele Dlamini was born in Alexandra in 1938 where her father was a Methodist priest and her mother a dressmaker. She has five sisters.
Mbeki was a boarder at the Catholic Inkamana Academy in KwaZulu-Natal before studying to be a social worker at the University of the Witwatersrand.
After working for three years for Anglo American plc as a case worker in Zambia, Mbeki moved to London and completed a diploma in social policy and administration at the London School of Economics in 1968. She later won a scholarship to do her PhD on the position of African women under apartheid at Brandeis University in the United States, although she left the United States to marry Thabo Mbeki before completing it.
While in London, Mbeki worked as a psychiatric social worker at Guy’s Hospital, and at the Marlborough Day Hospital.
After her marriage, Mbeki worked for the International University Education Fund in Lusaka, Zambia. She resigned in 1980, shortly before it was closed down after the exposure of her boss, Craig Williamson, as a South African spy. She was also elected to the ANC's Women's League and edited the Voice of Women. Mbeki lectured at the University of Zambia for two years and then worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Nairobi.
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