114 Facts About Jacob Zuma

Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018.

Jacob Zuma is referred to by his initials JZ and clan name Msholozi, and was a former anti-apartheid activist, member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, and president of the African National Congress between 2007 and 2017.

Jacob Zuma joined the ANC at the age of 17 in 1959, and spent ten years in Robben Island Prison as a political prisoner.

Jacob Zuma went into exile in 1975, and was ultimately appointed head of the ANC's intelligence department.

Jacob Zuma was the deputy president of South Africa from 1999 to 2005 under President Thabo Mbeki, Nelson Mandela's successor.

Jacob Zuma managed to retain the support of a left-wing coalition inside the ANC, which allowed him to remove Mbeki as ANC president in December 2007 at the ANC's Polokwane elective conference.

Jacob Zuma was elected president of South Africa in the 2009 general election and took office on 9 May The criminal charges against him were formally withdrawn the same week.

Jacob Zuma's presidency was beset by controversy, especially during his second term.

In 2014, the Public Protector found that Jacob Zuma had improperly benefited from state expenditure on upgrades to his Nkandla homestead, and in 2016, the Constitutional Court ruled that Jacob Zuma had failed to uphold the Constitution, leading to calls for his resignation and a failed impeachment attempt in the National Assembly.

Shortly after his resignation on 16 March 2018, the National Prosecuting Authority announced that Jacob Zuma faced prosecution on corruption charges relating to the 1999 Arms Deal.

Jacob Zuma pleaded not guilty on 26 May 2021, but the trial was not scheduled to take place until early 2023.

In July 2021, Jacob Zuma was imprisoned in Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal, for contempt of court for a separate legal matter.

Jacob Zuma was born in Nkandla, Natal Province, and often moved around Natal and the suburbs of Durban as a child.

Jacob Zuma's father, Nobhekisisa, was a policeman who died when Zuma was five, and his mother, Geinamazwi, was a domestic worker.

Michael Zuma was employed by Khumbula Property Services, a construction company, and in 2011 admitted to using his elder brother Jacob's political status to secure a government contract for the company in exchange for a homestead in Nkandla.

Jacob Zuma began engaging in anti-apartheid politics at an early age and joined the ANC in 1959.

Jacob Zuma became an active member of Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1962, two years after the ANC was banned.

Jacob Zuma was convicted of conspiring to overthrow the apartheid government and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment, which he served on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela and other notable ANC leaders imprisoned during that time.

Jacob Zuma left South Africa in 1975 and was initially based in Swaziland where he met Thabo Mbeki.

Jacob Zuma became a full member of the ANC National Executive Committee in 1977, and a member of the ANC's Politico-Military Council when it was formed in 1983.

Jacob Zuma was Deputy Chief Representative of the ANC in Mozambique, a post he occupied until the signing of the Nkomati Accord between the Mozambican and South African governments in 1984.

Jacob Zuma was forced to leave Mozambique in January 1987, so he moved to the ANC headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia where he was appointed Head of the ANC's underground structures, and shortly afterward was named chief of the intelligence department.

Jacob Zuma was a member of the South African Communist Party.

Jacob Zuma joined in 1963, served briefly on the party's Politburo, and left in 1990.

Jacob Zuma was one of the first ANC leaders to return to South Africa for negotiations.

Jacob Zuma is credited with having expanded the ANC's Zulu support base in Natal.

At the ANC's July 1991 elective conference, Jacob Zuma stood for the post of ANC Secretary-General and lost to Cyril Ramaphosa, but was elected Deputy Secretary-General, comfortably beating Alfred Nzo and Popo Molefe in a vote.

Jacob Zuma became a member of the executive council for economic affairs and tourism in KwaZulu-Natal.

Jacob Zuma held both positions until 1997, having been re-elected provincial chairperson in 1996.

Jacob Zuma was elected deputy president of the ANC at the party's 50th National Conference in Mafikeng in December 1997, and was appointed deputy president of South Africa in June 1999, pursuant to the 1999 general election.

Jacob Zuma served under newly elected President Mbeki and was the chief mediator in the Burundi peace process, in which he worked with Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, who chaired the Great Lakes Regional Initiative, a grouping of regional presidents overseeing the peace process in Burundi.

In late 2002, the National Prosecuting Authority announced that Jacob Zuma was one of several ANC politicians under investigation by the Scorpions for corruption related to the R30-billion Arms Deal, a major defence procurement package which the government had signed months after Jacob Zuma's appointment to the deputy presidency.

Jacob Zuma laid a misconduct complaint against Ngcuka with the Public Protector, Lawrence Mushwana, who in May 2004 found that Ngcuka's statement to the media had been "unfair and improper".

Jacob Zuma's appointment was booed publicly atANC rallies by Zuma supporters, including at a Women's Day event in Utrecht, KwaZulu-Natal.

Jacob Zuma was served with a provisional indictment on fraud and corruption charges in November 2005, mirroring the indictment earlier served on Shaik.

In December 2005, Jacob Zuma was charged with raping a 31-year-old woman, known to the public by the pseudonym Khwezi.

Jacob Zuma was acquitted on 8 May 2006 following a highly publicised trial.

Jacob Zuma told the court that he had taken a shower after the act, claiming that doing so reduced the risk of HIV transmission.

Nzimande and his SACP comrade Gwede Mantashe warned that the corruption trial would endanger public stability if it went ahead, although there were reports that support for Jacob Zuma had caused a rift within the SACP.

Jacob Zuma became known for singing the apartheid-era struggle song "Umshini wami" with his supporters during these informal rallies.

Jacob Zuma supporters were seen carrying posters questioning Khwezi's integrity, burning photos of her, and on one occasion throwing stones at a woman that they mistook for her.

In June and July 2006, Jacob Zuma filed a series of defamation lawsuits against various South African media outlets for publishing content that allegedly besmirched his public profile in the form of cartoons, commentary, photos and parody pieces.

Jacob Zuma gained the support of five of the nine provincial ANC branches when they nominated candidates at their provincial congresses in late 2007.

Jacob Zuma became the favourite to win the presidency and became the ANC's presidential candidate in the 2009 elections.

On 18 December 2007, at the ANC's 52nd National Conference in Polokwane, Limpopo, Jacob Zuma was elected ANC president, beating Mbeki with 2,329 votes to 1,505.

Just over a week after the Polokwane conference, the NPA reinstated charges against Jacob Zuma and served him an indictment to stand trial on 12 fraud charges, two corruption charges, and one charge each of racketeering and money laundering.

Mbeki, seeking to avoid a protracted dispute, did so, and was replaced by newly elected ANC Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, who led an interim administration while Jacob Zuma campaigned for the 2009 election.

In January 2009, the Supreme Court of Appeal found that the charges against Jacob Zuma were not unlawful, contrary to the ruling of the lower court.

However, the NPA formally withdrew the charges in the same week that Jacob Zuma was inaugurated as national president, citing apparent evidence of prosecutorial misconduct in the so-called spy tapes.

Shaik had applied for a presidential pardon in April 2008 when Mbeki was president, and he continued to lobby for a pardon during Jacob Zuma's presidency, saying it was unfair that he had been convicted while neither Jacob Zuma nor the implicated arms company had been taken to trial.

Jacob Zuma's appointment was formalised by Parliament on 6 May, and he was sworn in as president of South Africa on 9 May 2009.

Opposition parties and the ANC's Tripartite Alliance partner COSATU urged Jacob Zuma to disclose his interests, and the opposition Democratic Alliance called for an investigation by the Public Protector.

ANC spokesperson Brian Sokutu explained that Jacob Zuma constituted a "special case" because of his "large family", which complicated the process.

The ANC distanced itself from Sokutu's statement and Jacob Zuma filed the disclosure later that week.

Jacob Zuma announced the new focus on RET during his February 2017 State of the Nation address.

Jacob Zuma claimed that critics of his politics were agents of "white monopoly capital".

Jacob Zuma was inaugurated in South Africa at the height of the 2008 global financial crisis and amid South Africa's first recession since the end of apartheid.

Jacob Zuma expressed support for expanding South Africa's nuclear power programme, particularly for a nuclear deal with Russian nuclear agency Rosatom which concluded in September 2014 but was ruled unlawful by the Western Cape High Court in 2017.

Jacob Zuma's administration pursued a number of structural economic policy reforms, but critics characterised them as "investor-unfriendly", and most were met significant opposition.

Jacob Zuma was attentive to land reform issues throughout his second term, but from 2017 he emphasised his support for land expropriation without compensation.

In December 2010, South Africa became a formal member of BRIC, which was then renamed BRICS, and Jacob Zuma attended the group's third summit meeting in Sanya, China, in 2011.

Jacob Zuma was critical of the Zimbabwean government's behaviour during the disputed March 2008 elections in Zimbabwe and called the delays "suspicious".

In 2010, Jacob Zuma called for international sanctions against Mugabe and his allies to be lifted.

Jacob Zuma's plane left from Waterkloof Air Force Base, presumably with the government's knowledge and reportedly with Zuma's explicit approval.

When Jacob Zuma entered the stadium parts of the crowd booed him loudly.

Jacob Zuma began his second term amid ongoing controversy over what were officially security upgrades made with state funds to his private homestead at Nkandla.

Similar to the final version of the report, titled "Secure in Comfort" and released on 19 March 2014, the draft found that some of the Nkandla upgrades exceeded Jacob Zuma's security needs and recommended that Jacob Zuma should repay the state.

The opposition, Economic Freedom Fighters, and DA applied for legal recourse to compel Jacob Zuma to follow the recommendations in Madonsela's report, and the Constitutional Court found in their favour on 31 March 2016.

In EFF v Speaker; DA v Speaker, the full court agreed that Madonsela's report was binding, meaning Jacob Zuma was required to repay the state for some of the Nkandla upgrades and that Jacob Zuma had failed to uphold the country's Constitution.

The court's finding that Jacob Zuma had failed to uphold the Constitution subsequently provided the basis of an impeachment motion in Parliament, which was sponsored by the DA and defeated by a significant margin.

However, Jacob Zuma faced serious backlash in the aftermath of the Constitutional Court ruling, including criticism from the SACP, civil society, several ANC stalwarts, and several active factions of the ANC.

The Guptas denied the allegations, as did Jacob Zuma who reminded Parliament that only he had the power to appoint ministers.

Shortly thereafter, the former director-general of the Government Communication and Information System, Themba Maseko, told the Sunday Times that Jacob Zuma had asked him to "help" the Guptas and that the Guptas had subsequently asked him to channel government advertising tenders to their newspaper, the New Age.

Jacob Zuma applied to have Madonsela's report overturned in the high court, which dismissed his application and ordered him to appoint a commission.

Jacob Zuma was criticised for a lack of stability in his cabinet.

From 2015, Jacob Zuma was understood to favour his ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Jacob Zuma, to succeed him as ANC president and therefore, presumptively, as national president.

Jacob Zuma's critics claimed that he would use his relationship with Dlamini-Zuma to retain control of the ANC and the state, and avoid prosecution on corruption charges.

Jacob Zuma told journalists that "the recall, most definitely official, is being implemented by this institution [Parliament]".

Shortly afterwards, Jacob Zuma gave a long live television interview on SABC on 14 February 2018, arguing that he had done nothing wrong and had not been given reasons for his recall.

Jacob Zuma said that he disagreed with the ANC's decision and was being "victimised".

Jacob Zuma said that if he was dismissed, the ANC could be "plunged in a crisis that I'm sure my comrade leaders will regret".

Jacob Zuma claimed that he had earlier had an agreement with the party that if he resigned it would be after "a period of transition".

The week after his resignation, Jacob Zuma attended a farewell cocktail party in his honour, hosted by Ramaphosa at Tuynhuys in Cape Town and attended by other members of cabinet.

On 16 March 2018, a month after Jacob Zuma resigned from the presidency, the NPA announced that he would again face prosecution on the same 16 criminal charges he was indicted on in 2006: 12 charges of fraud, two of corruption, and one each of racketeering and money laundering, all related to the 1999 Arms Deal and to Jacob Zuma's relationship with Shaik.

Jacob Zuma pleaded not guilty when the trial began on 26 May 2021.

At the instruction of the Public Protector and high court, in January 2018 Jacob Zuma established the Zondo Commission to investigate fraud, corruption, and state capture in the public sector in South Africa.

Jacob Zuma was scheduled to testify before the commission for five days in mid-July 2019, and on Monday 15 July he opened his testimony by claiming that the commission was part of a decades-long "character assassination" conspiracy against him.

Jacob Zuma denied the veracity of several other witnesses' testimony and questioned the appropriateness of the phrase "state capture", which he said was used to discredit him.

In subsequent months, Jacob Zuma appeared reluctant to cooperate with the commission, and he did not provide further testimony before it.

Jacob Zuma claimed that he and Zondo were friends, which Zondo denied, and that there was a conflict of interest arising from their "historical family relations".

In early December, the commission issued summonses for Jacob Zuma to appear before it in the weeks of 18 January and 15 February 2021.

Days before the first scheduled appearance, Jacob Zuma's lawyers wrote to the commission informing it that Jacob Zuma would not attend.

Jacob Zuma refused to participate in the contempt proceedings, although he complained of bias, and on 29 June 2021 he was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment.

Jacob Zuma told the press that he had been sentenced without trial, saying that it might "remind our people of the apartheid days", and told a rally in Nkandla:.

Forty minutes before the midnight deadline, Jacob Zuma handed himself over and was taken to the Estcourt Correctional Centre.

Jacob Zuma was ordered to return to prison, with his time on parole not counted towards his sentence.

The Department of Correctional Services declared that Jacob Zuma's sentence had ended on 7 October 2022.

Jacob Zuma is known for his sense of humour, and to the disapproval of opposition politicians, as president he frequently joked during his addresses to Parliament, including the mockery of the Democratic Alliance's fixation on the Nkandla scandal.

Some have said that one factor in Jacob Zuma's popularity is what Southall calls "the politics of charismatic buffoonery".

Whereas other politicians use this as an election gimmick, Jacob Zuma did it all the time and genuinely seemed to enjoy it.

Jacob Zuma is a polygamist, in line with Zulu tradition, and at a 2006 rally in KwaZulu-Natal, for example, he publicly spoke against same-sex marriage.

Jacob Zuma was frequently photographed wearing traditional Zulu attire at cultural events, and he appears less comfortable speaking in English than in his native Zulu, in which he is known for his "linguistic flair".

In 2010, Jacob Zuma's bodyguards were implicated in multiple incidents involving members of the public and journalists.

Jacob Zuma claimed that his home had been raided by plain-clothes policemen, and that he had been forced into the vehicle at gunpoint.

In January 2012, Jacob Zuma gave a speech at the ANC Centennial 2012 celebrations in Bloemfontein and, afterwards, sang the controversial song "Dubul' ibhunu".

In 2012, Jacob Zuma was featured in a satirical painting by Cape Town-based artist Brett Murray, who depicted him in his painting The Spear, with his genitals exposed.

Clive Khulubuse Zuma, Jacob Zuma's nephew, was named in the Panama Papers as a result of his links to oilfields in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Shortly after Jacob Zuma met with DRC president Joseph Kabila, Khulubuse Zuma's company Caprikat Limited secured a 100-billion rand oil deal in the DRC.

Jacob Zuma is a polygamist, in line with traditional Zulu culture, and has been married six times.

Jacob Zuma has been engaged to other women, including, from 2002, Princess Sebentile Dlamini, a niece of Swazi King Mswati III.

Jacob Zuma paid the traditional lobola in cattle, but, as of 2022, they have not married, although the Citizen reported in 2017 that they were still engaged.

Jacob Zuma has two daughters, born 1998 and 2002, with Pietermaritzburg businesswoman Nonkululeko Mhlongo, whom he met in 1990 and to whom he was rumoured to be engaged.

Jacob Zuma's other children include a daughter, Thandekile Matina, born 8 October 2009 to Sonono Khoza, the daughter of soccer administrator Irvin Khoza, and, according to media reports, three children to a woman from Johannesburg and one to a woman from Richard's Bay.

Jacob Zuma started the foundation to send children to school and build houses for people living in poverty.