Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s incumbent president, is facing major challenges to his leadership. Just like his life, his presidential term is filled with difficulties, and we have yet to see how he will overcome. Long before he became the most prominent political figure in South Africa, his name was known by many for reasons that will be stated below. Here are eight significant things you should learn about Jacob Zuma.
- He can speak in six languages, namely Zulu, French, Russia, Portuguese, Swahili and Xhosa. What is more impressive is that he does it fluently. To top it all, he had no formal education because his father died early and his mom was a domestic worker.
- He joined politics at the early age of 17. He got involved with African National Congress, but it was soon banned, so he joined South African Communist Party which led to him receiving training in the Soviet Union. Much much later he became the head of African National Congress Department of Intelligence.
- He served a ten-year prison term for the charge of conspiring against the government, resulting in imprisonment on Robben Island along with a few other prominent ANC leaders and Nelson Mandela.
- He became the 14th president of South Africa. He was re-elected after his first five years.
- He improved South Africa’s healthcare program, especially focusing on HIV treatment and prevention of new infections which led to longer life expectancy for the citizens. This is considered to be the peak of his career. But he somehow negated its effect due to an action he did in number three.
- He faced rape charges. In 2005, President Zuma was charged with rape, although he denied it and claimed it was consensual. He also admitted having sex without a condom, though the woman was known to be HIV positive. His justification was that he later showered so he can reduce the risk of contacting HIV. More jacob Zuma news on buzzsouthafrica.com!
- He suffered the lowest point of his political career when he was dismissed as an Executive Deputy President by then president Thabo Mbeki because of the allegations on him regarding fraud and corruption. The accusations were taken to court, but it was later on dismissed on the grounds of ‘insufficient evidence”. However, it left a mark on the people, especially since he has previous brushes with the law, with many starting to doubt his capacity.
- He is a polygamist and was married six times, although he only has four wives now because he divorced one, and the other one died. He has 21 known children, sixteen of which are from legal wives, with the rest as a result of his extramarital relationships. More jacob zuma stories here!