Word: zuma
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...wonder Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma still has a political career. Since 2005, he has been sacked as Deputy President of South Africa, tried and acquitted of rape and embroiled in a corruption scandal over defense contracts. He is uneducated, has somewhere from two to six wives (he refuses to confirm the exact number) and has 17 children by nine women. And at rallies of his supporters, he sings the Zulu anthem Mshini wami, which translates as "Bring me my machine...
...Zuma, 65, is the front runner to succeed Thabo Mbeki as President of South Africa. Mbeki has two years left in his second term--the constitution bars him from a third. In December, Zuma will try to replace him as president of the African National Congress (ANC), which has dominated politics since, under Nelson Mandela, it was instrumental in ending apartheid in 1994. If Zuma wins the party presidency at the ANC conference in the northern city of Polokwane, he is all but assured of elevation to South Africa's highest office in 2009. The only man who could beat...
...panic over Zuma? South Africa's élite suspect he's a wannabe strongman in the mold of the rulers in much of postcolonial Africa to the north. Many senior ANC figures regard Zuma with open disdain. Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, an Mbeki supporter, recently warned that anyone who still sang Mshini wami was "not right in the head." Zuma, a heavyset man with an easy charm and ready laugh, dismisses his critics as out of touch with ordinary South Africans. "The majority in this country have not seen anything wrong with Zuma," he told TIME earlier this year...
...Zuma was born in the poor, sparsely populated area of Inkandla in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal. His policeman father died when Zuma was 3, and his mother found work as a domestic servant in Durban. Zuma was working full-time doing odd jobs by 15. His elder brother was an ANC member, and at 17 Zuma joined too. In 1963 he was arrested, convicted of trying to overthrow the apartheid government and sentenced to 10 years. After his release, Zuma helped organize underground resistance to apartheid, eventually becoming the ANC's intelligence chief...
This tale of triumph over adversity accounts for much of Zuma's appeal with the masses. So does his plainspokenness. He says he fought apartheid not for lofty ideals like racial equality, justice and democracy but because "I was oppressed." He panders to popular prejudices, calling same-sex marriage a "disgrace to the nation and to God" and boasting that when he was a boy, he would "knock out" homosexuals. Crucially, he benefits from his position as an outsider. Many ANC supporters are unhappy with what they claim is the government's pursuit of economic growth over equality: millions...