Thabo Mbeki is alive

We suppose congratulations are in place for the former president. He’s now enough of a celebrity to be declared dead for web traffic.

Ooduarere received numerous queries on Wednesday from concerned members of the general public asking whether we’d indeed reported that former president Thabo Mbeki had passed on.

We knew nothing about this, and in line with the statesman’s official Facebook account, he spent the afternoon in Ethiopia, brokering a peace deal for belligerents in Sudan, something he’s been busy with for some time.

The writing accompanying the photo above said: “AS WE SPEAK: From left to right: IGAD envoy to Sudan, Ambassador Lissane Johannes, former Nigerian President, Abdulsalami Abubakar, former South African President, Thabo Mbeki and African Union Liaison Office Head in Sudan, Ambassador Mahmoud Kane in a AUHIP ending up in Sudanese parties in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The AUHIP, which will be chaired by President Mbeki, happens to be facilitating peace negotiations among Sudanese parties. President Mbeki found its way to the Ethiopian capital on Sunday.”

If that’s not evident enough, the useful web resource deadoraliveinfo.com also insists that the person who popularised the definition of “African Renaissance” continues to be in our midst at age 74: