The Ambassadors Magazine - January 2009

The third elected post-apartheid South African president after Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki is a controversial personality. The 67-year-old from the Zulu village of KwaNxamalala was born to a poor family. His mother was a domestic servant in the port city Durban and his father was a policeman who died when he was only four years old. He was forced to leave school at an early age, after completing grade five. His grandfather needed a herd boy and pulled him out of school to work with goats and cattle. He taught himself to read in the evening, borrowing textbooks from other boys and finding a local woman who taught him informally. While tending cattle, he learned the traditional Zulu arts, including Zulu dancing and stick fighting. He was inspired by childhood tales of Zulu rebellions, and by an older brother who was an ANC (African National Congress) member and trade unionist. At the age of 17, he became a fighter in the ANC's military wing and was arrested in 1963, spending 10 years in jail alongside Nelson Mandela at Robben Island Prison, where he taught himself to become more literate, and became popular for singing and his organization of dance and choral groups that sang liberation songs.

Nelson Mandela during celebrations of his 90th birthday is seen her flanked by the leaders of the two wings of the ANC, Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki.

After his release in 1973, he went into exile, and became a leader of the ANC's intelligence arm. With the end of apartheid, he rose up the ranks to become South Africa's deputy president - until he was sacked by former president Thabo Mbeki in 2005. In 2007, he gained revenge on president Mbeki by winning the ANC's leadership. In 2006, he was acquitted on rape charges, and corruption charges were withdrawn. Even after becoming the leader of the ANC, he was always underestimated by South Africa's shuttering classes, who failed to understand his deep popularity with poor blacks and his ability to connect with voters at an emotional level. His singing and dancing on the campaign trail gave him a grassroots appeal that his better-educated rivals could never match.

All of the attacks from the media and his political rivals only made it easier for his supporters to portray as a "Black Jesus", who was unfairly persecuted. He captured a substantial proportion of the votes gaining a commanding majority in the April 2009 election. By singing the guerrilla anthem Umchini Wami (Bring Me My Machine Gun) he reminded voters of his long involvement with the struggle against apartheid.

Zuma being sworn in as the fourth post- apartheid President of South Africa on May 9, 2009.

Last May, the former goat herder and guerrilla leader from a Zulu village was inaugurated as South Africa's new president in a lavish ceremony with more than 5,000 guests at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, along with an expected 30,000 spectators on lawns outside, which is estimated to have cost $9 million. Even his old rival, Mbeki, attended the ceremony, a step towards healing the conflict that tore apart the ANC. Likewise, the new president preached reconciliation and stability. He assembled his new cabinet, signalling pragmatism and offered an olive branch to his opponents, pledging to work towards "a truly non-sexist, non-racial South Africa, united in its diversity." In a gesture towards gender parity, he appointed four women among the eight ANC provincial premiers.

President Zuma, who was ridiculed for his polygamy and his lack of formal education and was seen as a dancing, singing buffoon with a propensity for getting into legal troubles. He married his forth wife last year in Durban, dancing in a traditional attire. His three current wives attended his inauguration ceremony. Some mentioned that he was interested in marrying one or two additional wives this year. The South African media has been buzzing with rumours about which one of his wives will become the "First Lady"! In the following picture, his youngest wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli Zuma, 34, is seen raising her fist in victory after her husband voted in the April 22 general election at a primary school in KwaNxamalala. Analysts had been leaning to the prediction that she would become the First Lady of South Africa. In the end, Zuma chose to have three First Ladies which has both stirred controversy and drawn international media attention.

Zuma with his fourth wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli, covered in banknotes pinned on her by guests as tokens of good wishes, after they were married in a traditional ceremony. (Simphiwe Nkwali, Sunday Times)

Nompumelelo Ntuli Zuma (Jerome Delay/AP)

Zuma appearing with his First Wives Thobeka Mabhija, Nompumelelo Ntuli and Sizakele Khumalo at the state of the nation address during a joint meeting of the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces (Photo: Gallo Images).

Essam Farag, BA Honours (Dalhousie), MA (Guelph) is the Production Editor of the Ambassadors Magazine. Email: essamfarag@ambassadors.net