SOUTH AFRICA - Important People

Jacob Zuma

Jacob Zuma, born April 12, 1942, became the 4 th President of the Post Apartheid South Africa on May 9, 2009 at Nkandla in his native province's of South Africa . He spent his childhood between the Zulu-land , where he cared for cows and the suburbs of the city of Durban. His father died as a policeman in 1945. His mother ws a servant maid . He could not go to school because there was racism (Apartheid).

Political activism and imprisonment (1959-1975)

He became a member of the African National Congress in 1959 and an active member of its armed wing, “Umkhonto We Sizwe” in 1962, following the banning of the ANC in 1960. Zuma was then a big man, certainly with a little knowledge, but brave.

In 1963, he organised a network of clandestine activity in the province of Natal, he was arrested with his 20 recruits near the town of Zeerust in the west of the province of Transvaal. Convicted of conspiring to overthrow the government, he was sentenced to ten years in prison and sent to serve his sentence in Robben Island prison. It was during his incarceration on Robben Island, thanks to lessons offered by other prisoners as Govan Mbeki, that Jacob Zuma learnt to read, write and become familiar with the debate of ideas. He was released in 1973 and immediately tried to reactivate the ANC in the province of Natal.

Exile (1975-1990)

 Back into hiding and wanted by the police, he left South Africa in 1975 to Swaziland then settled in 1977 in Mozambique, now independent and organized support for exiled people after the riot of Soweto in 1976.

In 1977 he became a member of the national executive committee of the ANC and the vice president of the representation of the ANC in Mozambique until 1984 , when he became president.

In 1984, Zuma was forced to leave Mozambique as a result of agreements between Mozambique and South Africa. He joined the ANC headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia, where he became head of the intelligence services and participated in the organization of the armed wing of the ANC.

He was now both a member of the political council and the military council of the ANC.

Return and political ascension (1990 – 1999)

Following the legalization of the ANC in 1990 by the government of Frederik de Klerk, He was one of the first exiled leaders of the movement to return to South Africa to begin the negotiation process.

In 1991, Zuma was elected Deputy Secretary General of the ANC at the request of Nelson Mandela. He then dealt with the return of exiles and fighters and gaining recognition of his countrymen by becoming, in 1994, the main architect of peace in Natal, ending ethnic and fratricidal clashes between the ANC and the Zulus of Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP ).

During he first multiethnic elections in April 1994, Zuma was the party's candidate for prime minister of the new province of KwaZulu-Natal, but he was finally carried away by Inkatha rivals. However he was appointed to the Executive Committee on Economic Affairs and Tourism in the province involving the two former rival movements of KwaZulu -Natal.

Clement et Dylan