Thabo Mbeki

In a statement after his party won its third straight victory since the end of apartheid with close to 70 percent of the vote, Mbeki described the outcome as a "challenge" to the party.

Africa's oldest liberation movement, which in 1994 forced an end to some five decades of white racist rule, won a two-thirds majority in the April 14 landmark poll -- a magic figure it had failed to achieve in the last two elections.

The Japan Times Weekly: April 24, 2004
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