- Former President Thabo Mbeki turned 80 on Saturday.
- President Cyril Ramaphosa described him as 'one of our continent's most revered statesmen'.
- Mbeki served as president from 1999 to 2008.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has heaped praise on former President Thabo Mbeki describing him as, "... one of our continent's most revered statesmen."
In a recorded message to Mbeki, who celebrated his 80th birthday on Saturday, Ramaphosa said, "The democracy you helped build, of which you are a founding father, will rise to reach its full potential in your lifetime."
Mbeki served as the second president of a democratic South Africa from June 1999 to September 2008.
Ramaphosa said 80 years is said to be an oak jubilee, with the oak tree symbolising strength, endurance, and wisdom.
"Such is your place in South Africa's public life. You continue to enrich our country's public life with your presence, your participation, and your counsel. As a former president and one of our continent's most revered statesmen, yours could well have been a retirement of contemplation and study far from the public gaze. But this was not to be your destiny. Not with the cause of national liberation still incomplete," Ramaphosa said.
Please join us as we wish our Patron, President Thabo Mbeki a happy 80th birthday. We are grateful for the years he has dedicated towards our country and continent at large! #TM80 pic.twitter.com/PMiNTFbTlg
— Thabo Mbeki Foundation (@TMFoundation_) June 18, 2022
Ramaphosa said it had been an honour for him, and the government, to count on Mbeki for advice and support.
"It has been a comfort to us, and to me personally, to know we continue to rely on your honesty when we are not living up to the expectations of our people.
"Your appraisal of the work of government and our movement, though at times strident, is always tempered by a deep appreciation of the difficulties of overcoming the legacy of our past," he said.
Ramaphosa also told Mbeki that South Africans, and those on the continent, shelter beneath the branches of his wisdom.
"For all of these achievements and more, for your courageous voice and for your solidarity with the cause of rebuilding South Africa, we thank you," Ramaphosa said.