The 49th National Conference of the African National Congress (ANC) was held from 17 to 22 December 1994 in Bloemfontein, the city in which the ANC was founded. The conference took place several months after the South Africa's first democratic elections, at which the ANC had won 62.65% of the national vote and incumbent ANC President Nelson Mandela had been elected national President. It was therefore the ANC's first national conference as a ruling party, and only its second national conference since its unbanning in 1990. The theme of the conference was "From Resistance to Reconstruction and Nation-Building." Attended by 2,719 voting delegates, it was held at the University of the Free State, which Mandela said was remarkable, given that the university had "condemned [the ANC] as subversive, as treasonable" during apartheid.

Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served as the second president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC). Before that, he was deputy president under Nelson Mandela from 1994 to 1999.