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Fighter all his life

Vice-President Hamid Ansari congratulating the newly elected President of South Africa Jacob Juma after the oath-taking ceremony in Pretoria on Saturday. - PHOTO: PTI

Johannesburg: Jacob Zuma, who even considered retiring from politics in 2006, started a new innings in public life as the fourth President of post-apartheid South Africa on Saturday. He may have spent his teens as a goatherd, but he has been a fighter all his life.

And it showed when he fought corruption and rape charges which many believed were foisted on him to keep him from the top echelons of the African National Congress (ANC).

He joined the ANC at the age of 17 and became a militant in its armed wing three years later. From then on for decades his was a life of struggle and dislocation.

Arrested after a year, he spent the next decade in the Robben Island prison. There he received his political education from ANC comrades including Ibrahim Ibrahim and Harry Gwala.

Released in 1973, Mr. Zuma plunged into the struggle against the apartheid regime by spotting and politically educating youngsters who would then be sent across the border for military training. During one such clandestine visit to Swaziland he met the local ANC commander, Thabo Mbeki.

Expelled from Swaziland, the indefatigable fighter against apartheid moved to Mozambique. And when its government came under pressure, he suffered a second expulsion.

Mr. Zuma soon rose to the position of chief of intelligence and counter-intelligence of the ANC. This was a crucial position as the racist regime was constantly attempting to infiltrate the ANC and break down its resistance.

For decades Mr. Mbeki and Mr. Zuma were in the struggle together and both assumed leadership positions in the party and the government apparatus after South Africa was liberated. The first post-apartheid President, Nelson Mandela, utilised Mr. Zuma’s abilities to end conflict in two major South African provinces. Mr. Mbeki and Mr. Zuma continued to work together in the party and the government.

But within years came the falling out. First there was a corruption charge that saw him being removed as South Africa’s Deputy President in 2005. The same year, the daughter of one of his closest aides accused him of rape.

These were dark days for Mr. Zuma and he considered throwing in the towel as he began to be pilloried for his frankness and the open life he lived. A product of struggle, Mr. Zuma admitted to consensual sex but denied rape. He denied the corruption charges. His fortunes turned the next year.

In 2006, on the basis of his daughter’s testimony he was acquitted of rape charges. The courts threw out the corruption charges after listening to intercepts that showed that the prosecutors were taking their cue from elsewhere. Not alone in the battle, Mr. Zuma drew unstinted support from his party as well as the South African Communist Party and the Confederation of South African Trade Unions.

In 2008 he trounced former comrade Mr. Mbeki in the contest for ANC presidentship. And this year, Mr. Zuma led the ANC to another decisive victory in the parliamentary elections.

How does it bode for India? When Mr. Zuma was in New Delhi last year as president of the ANC, he said during an interaction with The Hindu that India would be among the countries that would remain in the focus of South Africa’s foreign policy. Mr. Zuma’s former cell-mate at Robben Island and head of the ANC’s foreign policy department Mr. Ibrahim drew attention to the extensive interaction between Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Mr. Zuma in Johannesburg last year. The acquaintance was renewed when Mr. Zuma twice visited India.

During the interaction with The Hindu Mr. Zuma pointed out that India was the first country in Asia he visited after taking over as ANC president. From a person who has allowed his life to be an open book, this was enough indication that India would remain close to his heart when he leads South Africa for the next five years.

Corrections and Clarifications

The twelfth paragraph of a report "Fighter all his life" (May 10, 2009) was "In 2008 he [Jacob Zuma] trounced former comrade Mr. Mbeki in the contest for ANC presidentship." Jacob Zuma became the new president of the African National Congress at the party's conference in Polokwane on December 18, 2007. Thabo Mbeki received 1,505 votes and Zuma 2,329 votes.

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