Jacob Zuma

Even today, I would fight and die for you. I say that without any hesitation because that is what I stood for when I joined the struggle. I will stand for it until the end.

Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (born 12 April 1942) GCB was the 5th President of South Africa, elected by parliament following the African National Congress's victory in the 2009 general election. He had previously served as Deputy President under Thabo Mbeki, and had replaced Mbeki as leader of the ANC in 2007 on a left-wing populist platform. Although many of his pledged policies were not implemented, he was re-elected in the 2014 election. However, in 2018 he was impeached for corruption and state capture. He was later arrested in July 2021 for failing to appear in court. His presidency has also been blamed for ongoing economic and energy crises.

Quotes

• Ever since I was born I have never been involved in corruption and I will never be corrupt.
  • From the steps of the Johannesburg Public Library after his rape acquittal on 8 May 2006, Manto: Media sensationalised Zuma's shower statement, M&G, 11 May 2006

• One hundred and eleven thousand twohundred and sixty one hundred thousand.
  • Zuma can't pronounce a number

• Even today, I would fight and die for you. I say that without any hesitation because that is what I stood for when I joined the struggle. I will stand for it until the end.
  • After his rape acquittal on 8 May 2006, Zuma castigates media after acquittal, M&G, 8 May 2006

• Me?! What? I don’t know, unless I must go to the dictionary and learn what a crook is. I’ve never been a crook. ... I'm saying I'm not a crook, I have never been a crook. I will never be a crook.
  • In reply to the question 'Are you a crook?', from BBC Panorama interviewer Fergal Keane, 11 February 2008

• As Africans, long before the arrival of religion and [the] gospel, we had our own ways of doing things, ... Those were times that the religious people refer to as dark days but we know that, during those times, there were no orphans or old-age homes. Christianity has brought along these things.
  • At an event in KwaZulu-Natal, Jacob Zuma blames Christianity for South Africa's problems, The Telegraph, 21 December 2011

• We are going to shoot them, they are going to run; We are going to shoot them, with the machine gun; They are going to run. You are a white man – We are going to hit them – and you are going to run! Shoot the Boer! We are going to hit them – they are going to run! The Cabinet will shoot them with the machine gun! The Cabinet will shoot them with the machine gun! Shoot the Boer!
  • Singing to supporters at ANC celebrations in Bloemfontein on 8 January 2012, Is Jan van Riebeeck really the cause of all SA's misfortunes?, Dave Steward (16 January 2015)
  • Jacob Zuma sings kill the Boer, youtube

• All the trouble began in 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck landed in the Cape.
  • At an ANC fundraiser on 9 January 2015, Jan van Riebeeck Statement Lands Zuma in Hot Soup, by Oliver Ngwenya, 17 January 2015

• The reality is that we are dealing with the legacy of Apartheid. The economy of Apartheid was racially skewed and structured to take care of the minority, not the majority of the country. Everything you look at, be [it] the infrastructure, or energy, or economic [...], it was all based on wrong and distorted ideology. When commentators comment on this matter of [...] energy, they forget this and want to put the blame to a democratic government. ... before 1994 there was a wrong belief that energy in South Africa was in abundance, ... It was a mistaken view. It was because energy was made to serve a few. Immediately after 1994 when we had to grow the economy to the size of the population, ... when we had to implement the constitution ... and therefore rolled out [...] electricity to the remotest areas of this country, suddenly we realised we don't have enough energy ..., because we're now applying energy not in a false belief, but to [the] reality of the demand of the country.
  • On 10 January 2015 at Cape Town Stadium during the ANC's 103rd anniversary celebrations, 2015, Year of the Freedom Charter

• South Africans cannot believe that a man who never went to school is the President and that is the reason why he must be attacked 24/7 ... No one has ever said it is a miracle for this man to have become president and wrote a column about it.
  • Speaking as patron of the Jacob Zuma Foundation at Dube House official residence, Morningside, South Africans cannot believe they have an uneducated president – Zuma, News24, 15 January 2016

• The intention was not in pursuit of corrupt ends or to use state resources to unduly benefit me and my family. Hence, I have agreed to pay for the identified items once a determination is made. There are lessons to be learned for all of us in government which augur well for governance in the future.
  • Addressing the nation in response to the judgment of the Constitutional Court regarding irregularities by the Department of Public Works during the Nkandla project, and the powers of the Public Protector in this respect. Zuma: My actions were all in good faith, City Press (via News24), 1 April 2016

• The economy is not in our [i.e. black] hands, we are not in control of economic power. We have identified the weaknesses in [land reform]. Willing buyer, willing seller did not work. It made the state’s price tag an unfair process. In addition there are many laws dealing with land which cause confusion and delays. … Land hunger is real.
  • On 3 March 2017 during his annual address to the National House of Traditional Leaders, Zuma wants ‘black parties’ to unite on land issue, Citizen reporter (3 March 2017)

• When I became ANC president in 2007, we needed to deal with the immediate challenge of HIV/Aids decimating our people. Today, millions of lives have been saved and transformed and we no longer see and read about “Aids babies” who die before their fifth birthday. South Africa today has the biggest treatment programme in the world with more than 3.9 million people on treatment by August 2017.
  • In defence of his term in office, on twitter, as quoted by Quinton Mtyala in Zuma hits back over Ramaphosa's 'nine lost years' comments, IOL News (29 January 2019)

Submission to NPA

• Western paradigm brands this criminal.
  • On page 22 of the 88-page submission to the National Prosecution Authority (NPA), drafted by Jacob Zuma's legal representative Michael Hulley in 2009, as reflected in an NPA analysis document, South Africa – Zuma argues corruption has no victims and only a “Western” paradigm, City Press (12 October 2014)

Quotes about Zuma

• Do you seriously want us to leave the future of the ANC and the future of this country in the hands of such a man? Is that what you want?
  • Thabo Mbeki to Vusi Mavimbela, as quoted by Loyiso Sidimba in ‘Mbeki-Zuma fight cost the ANC’, SaturdayStar, 27 October 2018

• President Zuma‚ from being a child‚ never had a chance‚ because of the situation in this country‚ even to go to school. But he was educated the ANC way. ... President Zuma‚ out of the top six positions‚ [was the only person to occupy] most of those positions – deputy secretary general‚ national chairperson‚ deputy president and now president. ... It shows love‚ respect and adoration. [Zuma's leadership within the ANC was] a long‚ beautiful history but spoiled at the last moment. [The transition is peaceful, but painful also,] because this is telling somebody [that] your time is up when [he] should have known by himself that his time is up.
  • Tokyo Sexwale commenting on the departure of Jacob Zuma on 12 February 2018, as quoted by Penwell Dlamini in The life and times of Jacob Zuma, TimesLive, 12 February 2018

• With a malleable, corrupt or dysfunctional prosecuting authority, many criminals – especially those holding positions of influence – will rarely, if ever, answer for their criminal deeds. Equally, functionaries within that prosecuting authority may […] be pressured […] into pursuing prosecutions to advance a political agenda.
  • Justice R. Madlanga on Zuma's compromising of the South African prosecuting authority, as quoted in Constitutional Court strikes a blow for criminal justice system by Pierre de Vos, The Conversation (via News24), 14 August 2018
• To witness the damage a single person can inflict on a country, one can head to South Africa. Following the liberation from apartheid, Nelson Mandela, as president from 1994, created a climate of reconciliation while democratizing the country and liberalizing the economy. Under Mandela and his successor, Thabo Mbeki, inflation was tamed, government debt was halved and the growth rate reached 5 per cent. The outside world thought South Africa could be the next economic miracle. But the leader of the ANC’s left wing, Jacob Zuma, agitated against this ‘neoliberal’ model and gained power in 2009–18 on a programme promising that state control of the economy would create fair distribution. He really did change things – for the worse.
  • Johan Norberg, The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World (2023)
• Zuma jacked up public spending, but for consumption and corruption, not investment. State-owned companies were drained by Zuma and his lackeys, who are suspected of having looted about the equivalent of 20 per cent of GDP. Constant power outages and collapsing infrastructure contributed to growth collapsing and soon becoming negative. After being halved under the predecessors, public debt doubled under Zuma. Extreme poverty had also halved under the previous administration; under Zuma it not only stopped declining but even began to increase. That’s the way it usually goes. Strongmen who complain that growth takes too long to provide results are like the farmer who has no patience with the harvest and quickly makes himself popular by letting everyone gorge on the seed. Fewer seeds means you will have less to eat next season. Sooner or later, you’ll run out of other people’s harvests, as Thatcher would have said.
  • Johan Norberg, The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World (2023)