Mr Mbeki’s office has condemned the “sensationalism” and a spokesman insisted it was no secret that Kwanda was Mbeki’s son.In neighbouring Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe has jailed journalists for daring to write about his love life. And while it is inconceivable – yet – that that could happen in South Africa, the “love child” stories only feed the president designate’s open hatred of the “white-dominated” media that he has threatened, on numerous occasions, to crack down on. He has suggested that the media’s role should be solely to inform the people about what the government is doing for them.It is not so much the media, as criticism, that Mr Mbeki cannot seem to tolerate. Even President Mandela – whose support, at least in private, is not always unequivocal – appeared to issue a thinly veiled warning at a party conference against Mr Mbeki’s tendency to surround himself with yes men.The whites who now hang off the edge of Cape Town on the last stage of their hysterical flight from black-governed Africa might be expected to bad-mouth the man who will replace President Mandela, who always did so much to mollify and reassure them. They even blame Mr Mbeki for the caustic criticisms Mr Mandela levelled at them during his last year. Mr Mandela’s lips were moving, they say, but it was Thabo Mbeki’s voice that spoke.However, criticism also has a black face. The party’s rank and file – and particularly the “home” activists – whisper nervously about the way Mr Mbeki has attacked popular party figures.

He is accused – though never publicly – of orchestrating whispering campaigns against his rivals, engineering their demotion or departure from the political fray. But Mr Mbeki, of course, also has fans within the ANC, who ask for proof to back any of the Dark Prince accusations And they point out one undeniable truth. President Mandela was many things – unifying force, symbol of hope and forgiveness, clever communicator, man of vision – but he was never a politician. On the international stage, he was, quite frankly, sometimes a disaster.Mr Mbeki, a seasoned diplomat and undeniably an intellectual, is the man, they say, for this particular hour – and a man who also offers vision.

It was Mr Mbeki who brought the world African Renaissance, and the bold notion, eagerly snatched up by the US President Bill Clinton, that the world’s most shambolic continent could pull itself up by its own bootstraps. (Though, sadly, a string of subsequent conflicts have ensured that the Renaissance has remained languishing at the level of mission statement.)And there were signs this week on the campaign trail that the man more at ease in the corridors of power than campaigning at the grass roots was at least trying to hang loose and touch the people. In his native Transkei, still far from comfortable, he was at least pressing flesh, if not quite kissing babies. In his family village, where he visited his mother, villagers slaughtered a goat in celebration while he apologised to the rural poor – threatening to desert the ANC for the opposition United Democratic Movement – for the urban bias of his party.The usual sharp suits were left at home and open-necked sports shirts, that no one imagined he even possessed, were donned But these are clearly early days. He displayed a William Hague-like knack for just missing the sartorial target.

The jacket was just too well-cut to be casual.It could be some time before Mr Mbeki hears a stadium ring to an anthem singing his praises – he currently has just one song dedicated to him, compared to the huge range in honour of Mr Mandela – but he clearly won some new support. Would they miss Mandela, the people were asked? “Of course,” said one resident “But Mandela is an old man now. And it’s time for Mbeki.”None of this matters a fig, of course, to international business, outside investors or global markets. Only the economic path Mr Mbeki’s South Africa will follow is of concern. South Africa has pleased the West by following IMF-style orthodoxy, adopting tight fiscal controls and embracing capitalism rather than socialist economic solutions. It has done so despite tremendous pressure from the trade unions and the Communist Party, the ANC’s traditional allies. Though Govan Mbeki says Communism was so ingrained in his son that he cannot have forgotten it, there is no reason to think that the country’s economic strategy will change.

After all, Mr Mbeki has been in charge for quite some time.He will, however, have to walk an increasingly precarious line between delivering political promises to an already impatient black majority, and keeping international business onside. At a time when South Africa and other emerging markets are under siege, Machiavellian or not, that balancing act will demand all of Thabo Mbeki’s political skills.A Concise HistoryANC stalwart Origins: Born at Idutywa, Transkei, 18 June 1942 Education: University of Sussex MA in economics, 1962-66 Family: Son of the t Govan Mbeki. One of four children; one brother missing, presumed murdered by apartheid security forces Married to Zanele since 1974. Struggle credentials: Leader of African Students Organisation, 1961; youth organiser of the ANC, Johannesburg, 1961-62; exile, 1962; ANC official, London, 1967-70; military training, USSR, 1970; ANC official, Swaziland and Nigeria, late 1970s; political adviser to Oliver Tambo, Lusaka, Zambia, 1970s and 1980s; deputy president of South Africa, 1994 Pastimes: Voracious reader of the classics. He says: “You cannot have real national reconciliation of a lasting kind if you don’t have a fundamental transformation of society.” Mandela says: “He is a young man with a very favourable political background.” FW de Klerk says: “I have developed respect for him, for his intellect and his managerial capacity and I think he is truly committed to a fairly balanced economic policy.”. ON WEDNESDAY evening in Barcelona, 11 Manchester United players and manager Alex Ferguson could eclipse the deeds of all their predecessors, however illustrious, by completing an unprecedented treble.