Jacob Zuma is the current president of the ANC; and President of South Africa. He was born in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, on 12 April 1942. He was four-years old when his father died. Zuma had to forego school in order to help his mother support the family.
However, his cousins gave him books and taught him to read and write isiZulu. He also borrowed school books from friends and tried to teach himself. However, the bit of formal training he did have came when his cousin agreed to take Zuma to night classes in 1955. After his father”s death, the family moved closer to his mother”s home village and Zuma got his first job as a cattle shepherd. When the family moved once again to a township just outside of Durban, his mother took a low-paying job as a domestic servant and Zuma held a variety of odd jobs.
After the ANC was unbanned in February 1990, Zuma was one of the first ANC leaders to return to South Africa to begin the process of negotiations, and was instrumental in organising the Groote Schuur Minute between the FW de Klerk regime and the ANC that reached important decisions about the return of exiles and the release of political prisoners.
In 1990, at the first Regional Congress of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), he was elected Chairperson of the Southern Natal region and took a leading role in fighting violence in the region. This resulted in a number of Peace Accords involving the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
On 6 April 2009 South Africa”s chief prosecutor, Mokotedi Mpshe, announced that corruption charges against Zuma would be dropped after evidence showed there had been political interference in the investigation.
In 1991, at the first ANC National Conference held in South Africa after the unbanning of the organisation, he was elected the Deputy Secretary General of the ANC. In January 1994, he was nominated as the ANC candidate for the Premiership of the KZN province. He had also been a key figure in arranging talks with Inkatha regarding the violence in Natal, holding discussions with Mangosuthu Buthelezi, KwaZulu Chief Minister.
After the first national democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, Jacob Zuma was appointed as Member of the Executive Committee (MEC) of Economic Affairs and Tourism for the KZN provincial government. On 14 June 2005, former president Thabo Mbeki fired Zuma for his alleged “corrupt” relationship with his financial adviser Schabir Shaik. The chasm between Zuma and Mbeki only intensified from thereon. At the party’s 52nd National Conference in Polokwane in 2007, Zuma humiliated Mbeki by trouncing him as its new president. On 6 April 2009 South Africa”s chief prosecutor, Mokotedi Mpshe, announced that corruption charges against Zuma would be dropped after evidence showed there had been political interference in the investigation and it was “neither possible nor desirable” to prosecute him.
Zuma won a resounding second term as ANC president in Mangaung, Bloemfontein in December 2012.
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