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"You are the ANC, and your only purpose, therefore, is to serve the people of South Africa," Mbeki told the ANC's 50th annual conference in 1997, after taking the party's reins from Mandela

(CNN) -- South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki holds an enviable edge in the nation's presidential race -- he already runs the government.

After South African President Nelson Mandela won the April 1994 general election, he chose Mbeki -- an economist and a longtime pillar of the African National Congress -- to be deputy president.

Mandela soon eased into a ceremonial role and handed the reins of power to Mbeki, allowing him the experience a chief executive needs for the job he is expected to win in the June 2 elections.

Mbeki manages the nation's daily agenda, focusing on the bread-and-butter issues of nation-building, improving the quality of life for working people and shaping the nation's foreign policy.

He has helped spearhead efforts to generate economic investment, rebuild the nation's infrastructure, battle the vestiges of apartheid and establish a new constitution.

Mbeki is the "real ruler of South Africa, the de facto ruler," Mandela has said.

During the election campaign, Mbeki has been meeting working people, listening to their complaints about jobs, rampant corruption and ever-present crime.

But he has one disadvantage when he presses the flesh -- he isn't Nelson Mandela.

Mandela has an unparalleled leadership style; he comes across as a statesman with great appeal to the common man. And he has a larger-than-life image.

To the world, he is a symbol of Africa's future; to South Africans, he is the leader in the fight against apartheid.

Mbeki's image, in contrast, is that of a skillful technocrat, a political pragmatist and a deal-maker, a bureaucrat in a suit and tie.

His speeches almost always are brilliant and logical, and at the same time they can be dry and rhetorical, lacking folksiness and sound bites.

But one of his comments, an understatement, resonates truth.

"I was born into the struggle."

Mbeki came into the world with a solid anti-apartheid pedigree. Born on June 18, 1942, in the former Transkei, his parents were teachers and activists. His father, Govan, was a leading figure in ANC activities in the Eastern Cape and was imprisoned with Mandela in 1964 for his political activity.

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Mbeki joined the ANC Youth League at 14 and graduated from high school in 1959. He later moved to Johannesburg and became involved in anti-apartheid work. He enrolled at the University of London as a correspondence student in economics.

After the banning of the ANC, Mbeki went underground in South Africa, and he went into exile at the instruction of the ANC in 1962.

He had been arrested and imprisoned in Zimbabwe -- then Rhodesia -- for six weeks. He later moved to Britain from Tanzania, where he earned a master's degree in economics at Sussex University in 1966.

He worked at the ANC London office before being sent to the Soviet Union in 1970 for military training. He then began his rise through the ANC ranks, serving in a series of positions in Swaziland, Nigeria and Zambia before returning from his nearly 30-year exile in 1990.

In those posts, he promoted anti-apartheid ideas to the international media and coordinated efforts to gain white South African backing for the anti-apartheid movement.

Mbeki also helped pave the way for reconciliation between the races in South Africa, helping the government realize that a bloodbath could be averted.

He arranged meetings in Africa, the United States and Britain with members of the South African white business community and the Broederbond, the secret society of Afrikaners that ran the country.

After succeeding Mandela as head of the ANC in 1997, Mbeki embraces Mandela's former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

When he returned to South Africa, he was appointed ANC national chairperson. He became deputy president in 1994 and was declared head of the ANC in 1997.

Once a Marxist, Mbeki eventually realized the importance of capitalist economic development to help shore up the country's infrastructure.

Subsequently, Mbeki has fostered a market-oriented economic policy.

Investment, he believes, creates jobs, which in turn improves the lives of the workers. In the ANC's election manifesto, he touts the development of the nation's infrastructure -- bringing water, housing, electricity, telephone service and better health care and education to millions.

His address in April about the development of a new prison that created 7,500 jobs reflects his economic stance.

Seated with children infected by HIV, Mbeki delivers a live broadcast in 1998 urging South Africans to make a nationwide effort to fight the AIDS virus

"I visited the new Kokstad Prison facility this morning and could not help but reflect on the irony of the potential of a prison to unleash such an abundance of opportunities for so many sectors of our society.

"Our experience over the past five years has taught us that it is decisive interventions at the local level such as this that is required to accelerate the pace of change in our country," Mbeki said.

He has pursued privatization policies when necessary. Using his diplomatic skills, honed over his years in exile, he has convinced unionists that it is in their interests to back private ownership.

Investment also is driving South Africa's foreign policy under Mbeki, who is cultivating relationships with a new generation of world leaders.

He and U.S. Vice President Al Gore are heading the U.S.-South Africa Binational Commission, which promotes trade between the nations.

Mbeki agrees to hold regular trade talks and cooperate in the fight against international crime during a meeting with U.S. Vice President Al Gore in February 1999

A recent visit to South Africa by Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao helped promote trade -- as well as personal ties between Hu and Mbeki.

Austrian Chancellor Viktor Klima was invited to South Africa by Mbeki, and Germany Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is expected to visit, as part of Mbeki's effort to get to know members of the European Union.

Mbeki's effort to make friends and generate investment also has generated criticism.

Last year, for example, Amnesty International criticized Mbeki's decision not to raise human rights issues with China during a visit to Beijing.

Using his ANC diplomatic experience, he continues to play a role in mediating disputes on the African continent, such as the war in Congo.

Will Mbeki be able to assert his authority and establish his credibility? Mandela thinks he will.

"I think Mbeki knows so clearly what he has to do -- better than this old man," Mandela said. "I have no advice to give Thabo."