www.britannica.com Open in urlscan Pro
104.18.4.110  Public Scan

Form analysis
3 forms found in the DOM

POST /submission/feedback/1113190

<form method="post" action="/submission/feedback/1113190" id="___id3" class="md-form2-initialized">
  <div class="my-20"> Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). </div>
  <div class="type-menu">
    <label for="feedback-type" class="label mb-10">Feedback Type</label>
    <select id="feedback-type" class="form-select mb-30" name="feedbackTypeId" required="">
      <option value="" selected="selected">Select a type (Required)</option>
      <option value="1">Factual Correction</option>
      <option value="2">Spelling/Grammar Correction</option>
      <option value="3">Link Correction</option>
      <option value="4">Additional Information</option>
      <option value="5">Other</option>
    </select>
  </div>
  <label for="feedback" class="label mb-10">Your Feedback</label>
  <textarea id="feedback" class="form-control mb-30" name="feedback" maxlength="3000" rows="7" required=""></textarea>
  <button class="btn btn-blue" type="submit" disabled="disabled">Submit Feedback</button>
</form>

POST /submission/feedback/1113190

<form method="post" action="/submission/feedback/1113190">
  <div class="my-20"> Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). </div>
  <div class="type-menu">
    <label for="feedback-type" class="label mb-10">Feedback Type</label>
    <select id="feedback-type" class="form-select mb-30" name="feedbackTypeId" required="">
      <option value="" selected="selected">Select a type (Required)</option>
      <option value="1">Factual Correction</option>
      <option value="2">Spelling/Grammar Correction</option>
      <option value="3">Link Correction</option>
      <option value="4">Additional Information</option>
      <option value="5">Other</option>
    </select>
  </div>
  <label for="feedback" class="label mb-10">Your Feedback</label>
  <textarea id="feedback" class="form-control mb-30" name="feedback" maxlength="3000" rows="7" required=""></textarea>
  <button class="btn btn-blue" type="submit">Submit Feedback</button>
</form>

POST /print/article/1113190

<form action="/print/article/1113190" method="post" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
  <div class="print-box-items">
    <ul class="list-unstyled">
      <li><label><input class="mr-10" type="checkbox" name="sequence[]" value="0">Table Of Contents</label></li>
      <li><label><input class="mr-10" type="checkbox" name="sequence[]" value="1">Introduction</label></li>
      <li><label><input class="mr-10" type="checkbox" name="sequence[]" value="2">Role in the ANC’s fight against apartheid</label></li>
      <li><label><input class="mr-10" type="checkbox" name="sequence[]" value="3">Legal challenges and conflict with Mbeki</label></li>
      <li><label><input class="mr-10" type="checkbox" name="sequence[]" value="4">Zuma as president</label></li>
      <li><label><input class="mr-10" type="checkbox" name="sequence[]" value="5">Post-presidency legal troubles</label></li>
    </ul>
  </div>
  <input type="submit" class="btn btn-blue md-disabled" value="Print">
</form>

Text Content

Browse Search
Dictionary Quizzes One Good Fact
Subscribe Login

Jacob Zuma
Table of Contents
Jacob Zuma

 * Introduction
   
 * 
   Role in the ANC’s fight against apartheid
   
 * 
   Legal challenges and conflict with Mbeki
   
 * 
   Zuma as president
   
 * 
   Post-presidency legal troubles
   

Fast Facts
 * 2-Min Summary
 * Facts & Related Content

Media
 * Videos
 * Images

More
 * More Articles On This Topic
 * Contributors
 * Article History

Related Biographies
 * Hendrik Verwoerd
   prime minister of South Africa
 * Nelson Mandela
   president of South Africa
 * Julius Malema
   South African politician
 * Thabo Mbeki
   president of South Africa
 * See All

Home Politics, Law & Government World Leaders Presidents & Heads of States


JACOB ZUMA

president of South Africa
Actions
Cite
Share
Give Feedback
External Websites
Print Cite Share Feedback
External Websites
Alternate titles: Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma
By Martin Legassick • Last Updated: Jun 23, 2022 • Edit History

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table of Contents
Jacob Zuma
See all media
Born: April 12, 1942 (age 80) South Africa ...(Show more) Title / Office:
president (2009-2018), South Africa ...(Show more) Political Affiliation:
African National Congress ...(Show more)
See all related content →
Summary


READ A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THIS TOPIC





Jacob Zuma, in full Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, (born April 12, 1942, Nkandla,
South Africa), politician who served as president of South Africa from 2009
until he resigned under pressure in 2018. He also had served as the country’s
deputy president (1999–2005) and as deputy president (1997–2007) and president
(2007–17) of the country’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC).




ROLE IN THE ANC’S FIGHT AGAINST APARTHEID

Zuma received no formal schooling. He joined the ANC in 1959 and its military
wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), in 1962. He was arrested in
1963 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on Robben Island for conspiring to
overthrow South Africa’s apartheid government. After his release, he set up
underground networks to recruit for Umkhonto we Sizwe. In 1975 Zuma fled the
country to escape arrest. For more than a decade, he continued to work for the
ANC while based in neighbouring countries—first in Swaziland and then in
Mozambique. He became a member of the ANC’s national executive committee in
1977. After the government of South Africa exerted pressure on that of
Mozambique, Zuma was forced to leave the latter country in 1987. He then went to
ANC headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia, where he served as head of underground
structures (organizational units) and head of the intelligence department.

When the South African government’s ban on the ANC was lifted in 1990, Zuma
returned to the country and was elected chairperson of the southern Natal
region. He became ANC deputy general secretary in 1991, and in 1994 he became a
member of the executive committee for economic affairs and tourism in the newly
created province of KwaZulu-Natal. In December 1997 he was elected deputy
president of the ANC, and in June 1999 he was appointed deputy president of the
country by Pres. Thabo Mbeki.




LEGAL CHALLENGES AND CONFLICT WITH MBEKI

Zuma was widely expected to eventually succeed Mbeki as president of the ANC and
as president of the country. In June 2005, however, Mbeki dismissed him after
the fraud and corruption conviction of one of Zuma’s close colleagues,
businessman Schabir Shaik, who had been accused of soliciting bribes from a
French arms company on Zuma’s behalf. The judge in that case found that there
was a generally corrupt relationship between Shaik and Zuma, who was
subsequently charged with two counts of corruption. Zuma initially recused
himself from all ANC activities, but the ANC national general council defied
Mbeki by reinstating him as an active member and, eventually, as ANC deputy
president. In March 2006, with the corruption charges still pending, Zuma faced
trial on a rape charge, of which he was acquitted in May. In September a Durban
court struck the corruption case from the roll, stating that the state’s case
was not adequate.

Despite the repeated allegations of wrongdoing—which his many supporters claimed
were politically motivated—Zuma remained a popular figure within the ANC. At the
party’s conference in December 2007, he was selected over Mbeki to be party
president in what proved to be one of the most contentious leadership battles in
the ANC’s history. Later that month, Zuma was recharged with corruption and
fraud, and additional charges of money laundering, racketeering, and tax evasion
were brought against him. These charges were eventually dismissed on a legal
technicality in September 2008; prosecutors from the National Prosecuting Agency
(NPA) vowed to appeal the ruling, angering many in the ANC. In addition, the
presiding judge said there was evidence of political interference by Mbeki or
his supporters in Zuma’s prosecution, which ignited even more controversy within
the party. Although Mbeki vehemently denied the allegations, a week later the
ANC asked him to resign as president of South Africa, which he agreed to do.



Although Zuma was widely expected to be chosen as the country’s next president
in the 2009 election, he was not eligible to serve as interim president, who
under the terms of the constitution had to be a member of the National Assembly.
Zuma ally Kgalema Motlanthe was the ANC’s candidate for the position, and he was
the overwhelming winner in a vote held by the National Assembly in late
September 2008.

Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.
Subscribe Now
New from Britannica
During World War II, sales of sliced bread were banned to conserve steel used in
industrial slicing machines. The ban proved so unpopular that it was lifted
after two months.
See All Good Facts

In the weeks leading up to the 2009 general election, the corruption charges
against Zuma and the allegations of political interference were once again in
the spotlight, culminating with an announcement by the NPA on April 6, 2009,
that the charges would be withdrawn. Although prosecutors stated they felt the
corruption charges had merit, they noted evidence of misconduct in the handling
of Zuma’s case and cited taped phone conversations that had recently come to
light between the former head of the NPA and the former head of the Scorpions,
an investigative unit that was attached to the NPA before being disbanded in
2009. The taped conversations included discussion of the timing of the
reinstatement of charges against Zuma shortly after he was named president of
the ANC in late 2007. Opposition parties decried the withdrawal of the charges,
claiming that the NPA bowed to pressure from the ANC to drop the charges before
the election and that the question of Zuma’s innocence was still unresolved.
Nevertheless, the ANC performed strongly in the general election held on April
22, 2009, finishing far ahead of the other parties, and Zuma was poised to
become the country’s next president. He was officially elected to the presidency
in a National Assembly vote, held on May 6; he was inaugurated on May 9.




ZUMA AS PRESIDENT

Zuma adheres to many traditional Zulu customs, including polygamy (more
precisely, polygyny). This has endeared him to some segments of the population
but has also been a source of criticism from others, who find some customs to be
at odds with what they consider to be modern societal norms. Other aspects of
his personal life were also subject to criticism: in early February 2010 there
were allegations that Zuma had fathered a child out of wedlock, something
frowned upon in traditional Zulu culture; Zuma admitted that he had. As the
controversy surrounding this incident continued to grow—critics claimed, among
other things, that his behaviour showed a blatant disregard for the country’s
HIV/AIDS policies—he apologized for the distress that his actions had brought to
his family, the ANC, and the South African population.

During his term as president, Zuma was involved in continental affairs, taking a
role in mediation efforts to resolve crises in Africa on behalf of the Southern
African Development Community or African Union, including those in Zimbabwe,
Libya, and Côte d’Ivoire. At home, although there had been some progress made by
the government’s antipoverty initiatives, he faced simmering discontent over the
economic inequality still present in the country. He also continued to face
allegations of corruption, which included the reemergence of older charges: in
March 2012 the Supreme Court of Appeal ordered a review by the Pretoria High
Court of the 2009 decision by state prosecutors to drop corruption charges
against Zuma. In spite of those troubles, Zuma was overwhelmingly reelected as
president of the ANC at the party’s conference held in December 2012.

Zuma continued to be affected by allegations of corrupt or unethical behaviour
in the following years. One such example was the controversy generated by the
misuse of government resources that occurred when the Guptas, a wealthy business
family with whom he had very close ties, were allowed to land a private plane at
a high-security government air base as they transported guests to a family
wedding in 2013. Zuma denied having anything to do with that, and one government
investigation cleared him of having been involved, but widespread criticism over
the event remained. He also had to deal with allegations of impropriety
regarding extensive state-funded upgrades—ostensibly for security reasons—to his
private homestead at Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal. Discussions regarding the
questionable upgrades first surfaced in late 2009 but gathered steam in the
following years and came to a head when Thuli Madonsela, the country’s public
protector (the national ombudsman), released an official report in March 2014
that detailed the findings of a two-year investigation. It concluded that many
of the publicly funded improvements made to Zuma’s homestead—such as a swimming
pool, an amphitheatre, and a cattle kraal—were not security-related. Zuma was
found to have “benefited unduly” from the improvements and was called upon to
repay a percentage of the costs of the non-security upgrades.

The economic problems and cloud of corruption did not detract a significant
amount of support from the ANC, which managed to do well in the 2014 elections
and virtually guaranteed Zuma a second term as president. He was officially
reelected to the post by the National Assembly on May 21 and sworn in on May 24.

Nkandla continued to haunt Zuma. Two opposition parties brought a case regarding
repayment to the Constitutional Court, which in March 2016 unanimously ruled
that the public protector’s findings were binding and that Zuma’s disregard of
the public protector’s findings and recommendation to repay the money was a
failure to “uphold, defend and respect” the Constitution and ordered him to
repay the state for some of the upgrades. Earlier that month, his relationship
with the Gupta family had made news again, over allegations that the family had
promised government portfolios to some individuals. In early April Zuma survived
an impeachment motion in the ANC-dominated National Assembly, but many,
including some senior ANC members, were weary of Zuma’s scandals and called for
him to step down or be recalled. Later that month, Zuma was once again the
centre of negative attention, with a High Court ruling that said the 2009
decision by state prosecutors to drop corruption charges against Zuma was not
rational and should be reviewed and set aside. Faced with the prospect of having
corruption-related charges reinstated against him, Zuma petitioned the Supreme
Court to be allowed to appeal the High Court’s decision. Separately, the NPA
also petitioned the Constitutional Court to be allowed to appeal the decision.
In September the Constitutional Court denied the NPA’s request to appeal, and
the NPA then filed an appeal with the Supreme Court. In October 2017 the Supreme
Court ruled against Zuma and the NPA’s appeals, stating that the corruption
charges should not have been dismissed and could be reinstated.

Meanwhile, the ongoing scandals and allegations of corruption associated with
Zuma, as well as dissatisfaction with the performance of the ANC-led governments
at all levels, took a toll on support for the party. In what was widely seen as
a referendum on Zuma and the ANC, the August 2016 municipal elections, the party
took the smallest percentage of the total vote since it took power in 1994,
garnering less than 60 percent.

In mid-October 2016, Madonsela, in one of her last acts before stepping down as
public protector, was due to release a report of her office’s investigation into
allegations that members of the Gupta family had wielded undue political
influence on Zuma and other government officials. Zuma went to court to delay
the report’s release, but on November 2 he withdrew his challenge, and the
report was released later that day. Entitled “State of Capture,” it detailed
several instances of possible undue influence and recommended that a judicial
inquiry team be established to further investigate the allegations mentioned in
the report, but it did not accuse Zuma of having committed any crimes. On the
heels of the report’s release, a vote of no confidence against Zuma was held in
the National Assembly, but it failed.

Although Zuma did not stand for a third term as president of the ANC, he was
invested in the outcome of the December 2017 contest, which was between
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, his former wife and an experienced politician, and ANC
deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa. Zuma supported Dlamini-Zuma’s candidacy, with
some analysts asserting that he assumed that if she were elected, she would be
able to shield him from future prosecution for corruption charges after he left
office; Dlamini-Zuma’s vision for the party’s policies also represented much of
a continuation of Zuma’s agenda. Ramaphosa, however, campaigned on a promise of
cracking down on corruption and encouraging economic growth. He defeated
Dlamini-Zuma in a closely contested race.

On the heels of the disappointing election outcome, Zuma was dealt another blow
with the ruling by the Constitutional Court on December 29, 2017, that said the
National Assembly had failed in its duties by not holding Zuma accountable with
regard to the Nkandla scandal. Furthermore, the court ordered the National
Assembly to institute a process to be used in the future for removing a
president from office—thus increasing the likelihood that Zuma might once again
face impeachment proceedings or succumb to pressure from within the ANC to
resign before that could happen.

The situation came to a head in February 2018. After a series of tense meetings,
on February 13, the ANC announced that it had recalled Zuma, and it expected a
response from him—presumably that he would offer his resignation—within a day.
Zuma’s initial reaction indicated that he had no intention of resigning, as he
claimed that he had done nothing wrong and he complained that the ANC was
treating him unfairly. He did, however, offer his resignation on February 14,
2018. Ramaphosa was sworn in as president of South Africa the next day.


POST-PRESIDENCY LEGAL TROUBLES

Soon after stepping down, Zuma was confronted with more legal challenges. In
March 2018 the NPA announced that it was reinstating the charges against Zuma
pertaining to his relationship with Shaik and a French arms company; he faced 16
charges relating to racketeering, corruption, money laundering, and fraud. Zuma
pled not guilty at the trial, which began in May 2021. In a separate matter, a
public investigation about allegations of corruption during Zuma’s presidency,
stemming from Madonsela’s 2016 “State of Capture” report, was underway. Hearings
began in August 2018. Zuma appeared before the investigatory commission to
provide some testimony in July 2019 but then refused to participate any further.
He accused the head of the commission, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, of
being biased against him and demanded his recusal, which was denied. In June
2021 the Constitutional Court found Zuma to be in contempt of court for his
refusal to participate in the commission hearings and sentenced him to 15 months
in jail. Zuma began serving his sentence in July, but in August he was taken to
a hospital for surgery pertaining to an undisclosed medical condition. The next
month he was granted medical parole and allowed to serve the remainder of his
sentence from home.

Martin Legassick The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica


Load Next Page
Ask us a question



Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve
this article (requires login).
Feedback Type Select a type (Required) Factual Correction Spelling/Grammar
Correction Link Correction Additional Information Other
Your Feedback Submit Feedback
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise
the article.

Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to
gain a global audience for your work!
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve
this article (requires login).
Feedback Type Select a type (Required) Factual Correction Spelling/Grammar
Correction Link Correction Additional Information Other
Your Feedback Submit Feedback
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise
the article.

Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to
gain a global audience for your work!
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be
some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other
sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style
Legassick, Martin. "Jacob Zuma". Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Jun. 2022,
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jacob-Zuma. Accessed 17 August 2022.
Copy Citation
Share
Share to social media
Facebook Twitter
URL
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jacob-Zuma
Share
Share to social media
Facebook Twitter
URL
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jacob-Zuma
External Websites
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
 * Jacob Zuma - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
 * Jacob Zuma - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

print Print
Please select which sections you would like to print:
 * Table Of Contents
 * Introduction
 * Role in the ANC’s fight against apartheid
 * Legal challenges and conflict with Mbeki
 * Zuma as president
 * Post-presidency legal troubles

verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be
some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other
sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style
Legassick, Martin. "Jacob Zuma". Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Jun. 2022,
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jacob-Zuma. Accessed 17 August 2022.
Copy Citation
External Websites
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
 * Jacob Zuma - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
 * Jacob Zuma - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)


Update Privacy Preferences



BRITANNICA’S ON THIS DAY NEWSLETTER

Get Britannica's daily history brief straight to your inbox