Born and raised in Mbewuleni, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, Mbeki is one of four children of Epainette and Govan Mbeki. He is also the grandson of Chief Thabo Mbeki. The economist Moeletsi Mbeki is one of his brothers. His father was a stalwart of the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party. He is a native Xhosa speaker and his father Govan named him Thabo after his old close friend Thabo Mofutsanyana. His parents were both teachers and activists in a rural area of strength to the African National Congress, and Mbeki describes himself as "born into the struggle"; a portrait of Karl Marx sat on the family mantelpiece, and a portrait of Mohandas Gandhi was on the wall.