7 May 2009

South Africa's Parliament elected Jacob Zuma as president, celebrating the astonishing rise of a self-educated teenage goatherd who transformed himself into the charismatic leader of Africa's economic powerhouse.

Zuma will be inaugurated on Saturday, the culmination of a remarkable comeback for the former underground leader who survived prison under the former apartheid government, a rape allegation and corruption scandals on his way to the top job.

"I hope to lead the country on a path of friendship, cooperation, harmony, unity and faster change," Zuma said on Wednesday, declaring himself overwhelmed and humbled by a thundering outbreak of applause that greeted his election.

Zuma, 67, is to name his government on Sunday -- and world markets as well as ordinary people are eager to see whether he follows the pragmatic market-oriented path of his predecessors or reaches out to his powerful allies in the trade union and communist movements with more pro-poor policies.

In his address to Parliament, Zuma promised to speed up progress on education, health and land reform, fight harder against crime, create more jobs and improve the lives of millions of impoverished black South Africans who have seen little benefit since apartheid ended 15 years ago.

"We mean business when we talk about faster change," Zuma said, adding that his immediate priority was to limit the fallout from the global economic crisis, which has pushed South African unemployment back up to 23,5%.

He also promised that his government would be "more hands-on, more accessible" than past ones.

Zuma's long-dominant African National Congress (ANC) party won elections last month with 65,9% of the vote, giving it 264 seats in the 400-member National Assembly but with less than the two-thirds majority needed to enact major budgetary plans or legislation unchallenged, or change the Constitution.

The white-dominated Democratic Alliance (DA) party has 67 seats, the Congress of the People (Cope) -- formed last year by disgruntled ANC members -- has 30 seats and the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has 18, with smaller parties making up the balance.

Cope nominated its own leader Mvume Dandala for president, but Zuma easily defeated him by 277 votes to 47. The DA abstained.

Unease about Zuma's past
Despite the ANC's majority, it lost support in the elections to Cope and the DA because of unease about Zuma's past.

Just weeks before the April election, prosecutors dropped bribery and corruption charges against him because of misconduct by key investigators. And he was acquitted of rape in 2006.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of South Africa's anti-apartheid hero, Nelson Mandela, said Zuma has proved he could triumph over all obstacles.

"He is a capable leader who epitomises our continued and resilient struggle against the worst that humanity has to offer and the hope that we as a nation shall triumph against all odds because of the best that we collectively can offer," she told Parliament.

Opposition parties unsuccessfully challenged Madikizela-Mandela's nomination to Parliament because of her criminal convictions. In 1991, she was sentenced to six years in jail for her role in a kidnapping case. The sentence was reduced to a fine on appeal, but she was later convicted of fraud and theft charges.

Both Madikizela-Mandela and Zuma command loyalty among poor South Africans who felt alienated by the aloofness and intellect of former President Thabo Mbeki.

In a biography released ahead of the parliamentary session, the ANC emphasised Zuma's humble origins in rural KwaZulu-Natal. He dropped out of school after his father died, studying at night and while herding goats. This experience inspired him to set up an education fund that has helped educate 20 000 poor children, according to the ANC.

During apartheid, Zuma became active in the banned ANC, was arrested in 1963 and was sentenced to 10 years on Robben Island -- the prison where Mandela served decades and which has become one of South Africa's top tourist attractions.

In 1975, Zuma went into exile and helped organise ANC resistance to South Africa's white racist rule, returning home as apartheid crumbled.

For the first time, the ANC biography confirmed that Zuma has three wives -- Sizakele, Nompumelelo and Tobeka Madiba -- and 19 children "to whom he is very close".

Zuma is a member of the Zulu tribe, which allows men to have more than one wife. He has had two other wives -- Kate Mantsho Zuma, who committed suicide in 2000, and Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, from whom he was divorced in 1998.

Dlamini Zuma was foreign affairs minister in the departing Cabinet and is expected to join her former husband's administration.

The ANC also quoted from Zuma's forthcoming autobiography.

"I have never failed to learn from my mistakes, nor repeat them, nor pretend I never committed them in the first place," he wrote.

"I am made of sterner stuff, even if I say so myself. I am tempted to say I know no man alive who has witnessed the struggles that I have survived. They may have come close but not what I have gone through."

First ladies
Zuma has invited Nompumelelo, Sizakele and Thobeka to be at his side when he is inaugurated as the president of South Africa at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Saturday, the Star reported on Thursday.

Other family will include his children, his brothers and sisters and his three surviving aunts.

Also on Zuma's personal guest list are former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda, former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano, Indian National Congress President Sonia Gandhi, former Nigerian vice-president Atiku Abubaker and the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

Zuma's spokesperson Lakela Kaunda said his other guests were leaders of former liberation movements in Africa and of fraternal parties in India, China and other countries with parties that were close to the ANC.

The inauguration will be attended by 5 000 dignitaries, the report said. -- Sapa-AP