ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

Jacob Zuma is not yet President of South Africa, but after his election as leader of the ANC, it’s hard to see what now stands in his way (apart, that is, from the outstanding matter of some corruption allegations which may yet result in criminal charges being brought against him).

So from Nelson Mandela to Thabo Mbeki, and from Mbeki to Zuma. It’s quite a political path the country has walked down since those unforgettable days of 1994, when against all expectations, South Africa made the transition to multi-racial democracy without drowning in blood.

Mbeki was nothing like Mandela, and Zuma is nothing like Mbeki. I have had the rare privilege of interviewing all three of them, and it’s hard to imagine three men more different. Mandela: patrician, dignified, forgiving. Mbeki: aloof, intellectual, reserved. Zuma: outgoing, charismatic, larger than life.

So what would South Africa be like if one day Jacob Zuma is President? He is already promising much for those who have yet to see much material benefit from the ending of apartheid. And he certainly seems able to engender the kind of popular enthusiasm that Mbeki has never been very good at.

But his former financial adviser is already in jail after having been convicted of corruption. Zuma himself has been at the centre of corruption allegations for some years now – he denies all wrong-doing and insists that the allegations are politically-motivated. In 2005, he was also charged with rape, and acquitted, but not before admitting having had unprotected sex with a woman he knew to be HIV-positive. (He was head of the National AIDS Council at the time.)

For now, he and Mbeki insist that they will work together. But the contest for the party leadership was sometimes an ugly business, and there are doubts about how long their dual stewardship will survive. On last night’s programme. the general secretary of the trade union movement COSATU, Zwelinzima Vavi, who was among Zuma’s staunchest supporters, told me there’s no question of any β€œrevenge”. You can hear my interview with him and the rest of our coverage of Zuma’s election here.

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