Zuma Jacob (Jacob Zuma)

Biography

2009: Elected President of South Africa

Jacob Zuma has been chairman of the African National Congress (ANC) party since 2007, when he succeeded then-leader Thabo Mbeki. Two more years later, Zuma took Mbeki's place at the head of South Africa.

Zuma has been repeatedly accused of corruption during his presidential term. They were associated with the maintenance of his harem and numerous children, as well as the renovation of the residence. The prosecutor's office suspected him of corruption even before his election to the post of head of state, but immediately after the election all charges were dropped.

2012: Sacrifice to ancestors of 12 cows for the party's election victory

On November 25, 2012, South African President Jacob Zuma turned to his ancestors for help in the upcoming election of the head of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party. On this Sunday day, he traveled to his native village, where he sacrificed 12 cows to his ancestors with prayers.

During the ceremony, Zuma, dressed in the skin of a leopard, was given a spear and a shield, which should protect him from opponents in the elections. At the end, the president's son ordered the police and guards to remove the journalists, writes The Mercury^[1].

At a party conference in December 2012, Zuma's opponents expected to remove him from the position of leader of the ANC. Zuma's resignation was pushed by the party's influential youth wing and several government ministers. They believed that Kgalem Vice President Petrus Motlante was worthy of taking the chair.

2014: Re-election for a second presidential term

On May 21, 2014, Jacob Zuma was elected for a second five-year term at the first meeting of the new composition of the National Assembly after the parliamentary elections on May 7, in which the African National Congress received more than 62% of the vote and 249 seats in the 400-seat chamber. Since, Zuma was the only candidate - no vote was held. Chief Justice Mohoeng Mohoeng, who presided over the first session of the chamber, said:

"I declare Jacob Zuma the President-Elect of the Republic of South Africa."

Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telegram congratulated Zuma on his re-election, noting the friendly nature of relations between Russia and South Africa, said that he expects to continue constructive cooperation and, thanking Zuma for inviting him to the inauguration ceremony, added that the Russian delegation will be headed by the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament Sergei Naryshkin.

On May 24, 2014, at the Presidential Palace in Pretoria, Jacob Zuma was sworn in for a second term. The inauguration ceremony was attended by about 4 thousand guests, including delegations from Russia, India and China. The United States and Britain refrained from sending their representatives. In his inaugural speech, Zuma stated that "we will continue to work in forums such as BRICS to make the world more honest and fair," taking an oath to be the guarantor of the constitution and the law, making every effort to improve the lives of the people of South Africa and protect the territory of the country. After the inauguration, he said that the new government will focus on economic development and infrastructure construction projects in order to create a large number of new jobs.

On May 25, 2014, Jacob Zuma appointed Cyril Ramaphosa to the post of Vice President of South Africa and announced the list of the new government, stating that the new Ministry of Communications and Mail, the Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation and the Ministry of Small Business Development had appeared. In total, the government has 35 ministerial posts.

On June 7, Jacob Zuma was hospitalized for examination, as according to the ANC, "the president should take a break," after which the statement of the presidential office said that "doctors are satisfied with the state of the president."

2021: Jacob Zuma's arrest leads to unrest

In 2021, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison after refusing to testify to a commission investigating financial corruption and nepotism during his presidency.

The imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma on charges of contempt of court provoked riots and robberies in South Africa on July 12, 2021. Hundreds of shops in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces, which account for about half of the country's economic output, have been looted and major highways closed.

2024

The Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa in March 2024 removed Jacob Zuma from the list of candidates in the May elections.

Zuma campaigned on the lists of the newly created UMkhonto WeSizwe (MK) party in an attempt to resume his political career.

Personal life

Jacob Zuma is a polygamist, and the first president of South Africa to officially declare his commitment to traditional polygamy for Zulu, he has 8 wives (5 of them are official). Jacob Zuma first married Gertrude Sizakela Hualo in 1973, shortly after his release from prison, where he was imprisoned for fighting against the apartheid regime. Subsequently, he married Kate Zuma, who died in 2000, then - Nkosazan Dlamini-Zuma (he later divorced her, she became Minister of Foreign Affairs, after which she served as Minister of the Interior). With his fourth wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli, he married in 2007. The penultimate time Jacob Zuma married legally on January 4, 2010 with Tobeca Madiba. On April 20, 2012, Zuma married Gloria Bongi Nguema. He reportedly has 18 children of his own.

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