Publication: Der Spiegel Issued: Date: 2006-12-20 Reporter: Thilo Thielke Reporter: Jan Puhl

Waiting to Become President

 

Publication 

Der Spiegel
Date

2006-12-20

Reporter

 Thilo Thielke, Jan Puhl

Web Link

www.spiegel.de

 

A Veteran Apartheid Fighter Divides South Africa

Jacob Zuma, the deputy president of the African National Congress has avoided conviction in two legal proceedings. He remains a free man, but his moral standing has taken a hit. Despite all this, he still has an excellent shot at becoming South Africa's next president.

ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma: the great hope for South Africa's future or demogogue and populist?

Jacob Zuma lives in the well-to-do Johannesburg suburb of Forest Town. Guards patrol the high stone wall surrounding the compound, where red and white bushes bloom and the lawn is neatly trimmed like a golf course. The interior of the villa is just as luxurious: there is white marble, a bulging upholstered three-piece suite, and bombastic oil paintings of the man of the house hanging on the walls. A beautiful smiling woman in a bathrobe floats along the gallery in the first floor. Zuma, who is a Zulu, has at least four wives and ten children.

He bounds down the stairs in his shirtsleeves, slapping his guests on the back and laughing out loud when they protest. Zuma has reason to be exuberant. A corruption case against him has been thrown out of court and he has been cleared of a charge of rape. He stands a very good chance of becoming the next president of South Africa -- like Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki before him.

No man polarizes South African public opinion more than the deputy president of the African National Congress (ANC), Jacob Zuma. To some he is the man of the future, a counter balance to the arrogant neo-liberal ruling clique around President Mbeki. To others he is a demagogue and a populist who, only 12 years after the end of apartheid, could throw the emerging economy back to the misery faced by most other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Some see him as another African leader of the "big man" type -- corrupt and obsessed with power.

It was no direct path that took Zuma from Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province to Forrest Town. As a child, Jacob Gedleyihlekisa herded the family goats. In the 1950s he rebelled against the Apartheid regime and joined "Umkhonto we Sizwe" (Spear of the Nation) -- the armed wing of the ANC. He continues to cultivate the aura of the warrior to this day: His favorite song is "Bring me my machine gun" and he likes to sing it at gatherings.

In 1963 an apartheid court sentenced Zuma to ten years imprisonment on Robben Island in the shark-infested bay below Cape Town. His fellow inmates taught him to speak English properly, and to read and write. One of his teachers was a friendly lawyer by the name of Nelson Mandela.
 
Almost the minute he was released, Zuma went to Mozambique and Zambia, which he used as a base to coordinate the ANC's underground struggle. After Mandela's release in 1990 he returned to South Africa. Four years later, following the ANC's triumphant election victory, he became minister for economic affairs and tourism and would later get appointed to be deputy president in 1997.

But that meteoric rise stalled last June, when Mbeki suspended Zuma from his office. A court sentenced Zuma's former former financial advisor, businessman Shabir Shaik, to 15 years in jail for corruption. Shaik was also accused of funneling €130,000 to Zuma, who leads a notoriously extravagant lifestyle, in order to obtain his protection for an arms deal. Although the Durban court was unable to convict the ANC politician on procedural grounds, it came to the conclusion that there had been a corrupt relationship between Zuma and Shaik.

Unpunished, but his moral standing badly damaged, Zuma faced another trial in May. A 31-year-old friend of the family accused the politician of raping her. Zuma admitted to having sex with the HIV-positive woman, but said that she had wanted to have intercourse. During the trial Zuma said that it would be dishonorable for a Zulu man to not satisfy a willing woman. And to avoid contracting HIV he had a hot shower immediately afterwards -- a catastrophic piece of advice in a country in which almost one in five is infected with the virus.

His supporters outside the courtroom shouted "burn the bitch." While South Africa's slowly emerging middle class were horrified and repulsed, many poor blacks supported the ANC deputy president even more. The Mbeki government's liberal economic policy has led to a solid annual growth rate of between three and five percent. However, this boom hasn't reached the vast majority of South Africans -- there are few places in the world where the poor and nouveau riche live in such close proximity.

South African metropolis Cape Town: There are few places in the world where the poor and nouveau riche *1 live in such close proximity.


Cosatu, the powerful trade union, and the Communists -- both still part of the ANC umbrella group -- are openly rebelling against the Mbeki regime. In their eyes, former goat herder Zuma is the great hope for the future.

However, Zuma has so far avoided positioning himself clearly on the left. He knows the inner structures of the ANC all too well and doesn't want to appear as a divisive figure. The party has ruled with a two-thirds majority since 1994 -- yet the ANC still acts like the fighting organization from the apartheid era. Although there are formal elections and referenda in South Africa, the results are usually agreed upon beforehand in the committees. Zuma is waiting until his popularity alone assures him of the presidential candidacy.

And even if the ANC, which presents itself throughout Africa as setting strict standards in forming governments, doesn't nominate him, Zuma knows how to use his influence -- as a kingmaker.

SPIEGEL Interview with ANC Vice President Jacob Zuma: "The West Is Bent out of Shape" (12/20/2006)

With acknowledgements to Thilo Thielke, Jan Puhl and Der Spiegel.


*1 If the ANC and its favourite sons like Jacob Zuma, Schabir Shaik, Alan Boesak, et al weren't stealing from the populace, there would be far fewer poor to live next the rich, whether new or old.