JACOB ZUMA AS
PRESIDENT?
News.monstersandcritics.com:
His fall from grace came in 2005 when he was hauled before
the courts twice, once for rape and once for corruption. Zuma was acquitted of the rape charges, and the corruption case was thrown out of court over delays but only after he had been sacked by Mbeki as deputy president over the fraud conviction of his financial adviser. His remarks during his rape trial on AIDS - he told the court he showered after unprotected sex with his HIV-positive accuser to ward off infection - dismayed activists and led well-known cartoonist Zapiro to attach a shower head to Zuma''s bald pate in his drawings. ''If Jacob Zuma becomes president I''m going to zoom-a out of here,'' several whites were wont to say jokingly. ''Zuma, the journeyman politician, has seemingly survived a mountain of obstacles that would have annihilated lesser contenders,'' author William Gumede noted in his biography of Thabo Mbeki. Two years later, Zuma''s political rehabilitation, which culminated Tuesday with his
election to the head of the ANC, is largely down to his marriage of convenience with the party''s left-wing alliance partners. In the disgruntled Zuma, the equally disgruntled Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) found a man, who despite a lavish lifestyle, is seen as more amenable to their leftist agenda than the centrist Mbeki
www.guardian.co.uk
Jacob Zuma, the populist politician, humiliated President Thabo Mbeki with a sweeping victory in the election for leader of the governing African National Congress. Zuma, who survived a rape trial and his dismissal as the country''s deputy president by Mbeki over corruption allegations, took 60% of the nearly 4,000 votes at the party''s national conference in a dramatic political comeback. His victory potentially opens the way for him to become South Africa''s next president at the 2009 general election if he is not blocked by a longstanding graft investigation. The vote amounted to a repudiation of Mbeki, a man who has dedicated his life to the ANC but who was seen as increasingly authoritarian, power hungry and out of touch with ordinary South Africans.
Sabcnews.com
Mbeki received 1505 votes against Zuma''s 2329. DA leader and Cape Town mayor Hellen Zille has congratulated Zuma on his election. However, she has described his victory as sad for the country, adding that people should not despair. She said he had displayed very bad judgment and surrounded himself with very poor advisers; had been reactionary on gender issues and that it was tragic that the ANC couldn''t come up with a better alternative. UDM leader Bantu Holomisa says the results of the
elections show that people are hungry for positions. The results show that there has been a desire by those who were outside the government to remove those who have been in government for the last couple of years, although there is no ideology or policy difference among them.
Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has expressed her support for the newly-elected ANC leadership. Dlamini-Zuma lost to Kgalema Motlanthe for the position of party deputy president. Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder says the election of Zuma as ANC president heralds a new era for the ANC. Mulder says the winning Zuma camp must act magnanimously and with humility. Mulder also says ANC ex-president Thabo Mbeki and his cadres must act with responsibility and grace following their defeat.
Former state president FW de Klerk says the election of Jacob Zuma as ANC president is of historic importance. De Klerk says the decision will have a major impact on the leadership of the country for the next five to 12 years. He says the key to success will be the ability of South Africans to abide by the Constitution and the national accord that it represents.
ANC conference affects markets
December 18, 2007, 18:30
The g to be the next leader of the ANC and this country is creeping into the financial markets. The rand remained steady after slight losses yesterday, partly weighed down by tensions in the ruling party''s conference. Analysts say the rand and stocks could continue softer for sometime. Although the markets had factored in Jacob Zuma''s possible win, analysts feel the images of the first day of the conference made investors nervous.