When Thabo Mbeki succeeded Nelson Mandela in 1999 there was a sense that his leadership was just what the nascent post-apartheid state needed. For five years the great humanitarian had worked his reconciliatory wizardry to forge a new nation. His courteous and canny successor would be the technocrat to consolidate South Africa's democratic foundations.

It was clear even then that Mr Mbeki would never be a crowd pleaser. A committee room full of economists rather than a podium was his natural habitat. He regarded soundbites as beneath his dignity and peppered his speeches with literary references rather than political rhetoric.