Maravi

(WIKILEAKS CABLES) THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SOUTH AFRICA’S NEXT PRESIDENT

SUBJECT: PART 1 OF 3: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SOUTH AFRICA’S NEXT PRESIDENT
Friday, 08 May 2009, 15:04
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRETORIA 000939
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED

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Summary
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¶1. (SBU) Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, President of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, is a controversial but not well understood personage who emerged from obscurity to where he now occupies the apex of South Africa’s political pyramid. He is deeply loved and revered by his closest constituencies; he is mistrusted by opposition parties; and is hated by those here who believe he is “wrong for South Africa.” Zuma’s nearly five decades of involvement with the ANC, has brought him to this moment. Zuma is now poised to become the fourth post-apartheid President of South Africa, following Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, and Kgalema Motlanthe.

¶2. (SBU) The National and Provincial elections held on April 22, 2009 resulted in the ANC winning its fourth consecutive governing majority (65.9%). Under the South African constitution, the Parliament elects the state president; thus the ANC majority in Parliament elected Jacob Zuma to be inaugurated in Pretoria on May 9, 2009. This message weaves together various sources to provide a comprehensive look at the life and times of Jacob Zuma. Our goal is to dispel the caricatures that dominate the media and present a more realistic picture of the man who will soon lead the most dynamic emerging democracy in Africa. This is the first in a series of three related cables. End Summary.

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The Boyhood Years
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¶3. (SBU) Zuma was born on April 12, 1942 in the rural village of Inkandla in the heart of Zululand (now, Kwa-Zulu Natal). One hundred or so years before Zuma’s birth, the Zulu War leader Shaka led a bloody expansion of the Zulu kingdom against other African tribes, and fifty or so years before, the last Zulu War was won by the British Empire. Two centuries of colonial incursions into the heart of South Africa and the advent of the Afrikaner Boers into central and eastern territories reduced the Zulus to dependency status in a racist system that placed all blacks at the bottom of a segregated system of governance. Jacob Zuma was born the first-born son of the second wife of a provincial policeman and had two full brothers and two full sisters. The first wife of his father had three boys and four girls. His father, whom he says he never saw, died while Zuma was very young.

¶4. (SBU) The death of his father left his mother destitute and displaced her from her home in Inkandla. She returned to her own village of Maphumulo where she worked for low pay as a domestic. As the war ended, she relocated to a Durban township and worked as a domestic to feed her children. Zuma’s childhood was spent between Durban and the rural interior of Zululand. In 1947, the National Party won the election and instituted apartheid and racial categories as the policy of the state. The Group Areas Act, pass laws, Bantustans, separate facilities and amenities were in place. The racial segregation of the colonial period became the law, and the authoritarian police state was prepared to enforce wit with violence. In reaction, the violent, chaotic relations between the state and the oppressed Africans led to an atmosphere of periodic bloody riots, political suppression, torture, murder, strikes, townships in flames, Qsuppression, torture, murder, strikes, townships in flames, and widespread suffering.

¶5. (SBU) Zuma was forced to work odd jobs from a young age to supplement his mother’s meager income -- as a herd boy, a gardener, a domestic, in tea houses, and small shops. He faced the same problems of life of all Africans in the apartheid state. In the rural, pastoralist cattle culture of the Zulu, Zuma’s first job as a herd boy linked him to an ancient traditional occupation of African boys throughout the continent. He once wrote, “I used to look after them (the cows) very well. That was the first time I was praised for a job well done.”

¶6. (SBU) Not unusual for the times, as an unregistered African, Zuma only achieved schooling to Form III, or Fifth Grade equivalent. However, friends and relatives recognized his hunger for learning and helped him with what they had learned. He claims to be self-taught and that he taught himself to read and write. In his teens, in 1955, a cousin encouraged him to attend night school in Durban. In this era, African churches, trade unions, and civic organizations offered educational opportunities to their members that were otherwise lacking from the state. Throughout South Africa and beyond, Zuma’s life exemplified the distinction between education and intelligence -- the former he lacked, the latter he had in abundance. In 1985, in a biography penned for the Communist Party, he said he was self-educated up to the Junior Certificate level. Later in his life he said, “Education is education whether it is formal or not.” He continued, “I have done everything that the educated have done.”

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To Political Consciousness
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¶7. (SBU) The ANC was established in 1912 as one of several civil agencies seeking to end racism and segregation and to protecting the human and civil rights of the African majority. By mid-century, it had attracted the support of African intellectuals and traditional leaders as well as the average neglected African who was denied the rights of citizenship in the land of their birth. Zuma’s elder half brother from his father’s first wife was a secret member of the ANC. A maternal uncle was a trade union activist. They talked to him about the struggle for equality and freedom, setting the spark for his developing political consciousness.

¶8. (SBU) Zuma actively took to politics, resistance, and activism as a young man of 17 years. He attended public and underground meetings where the goals of groups like the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) were discussed. In 1958, he hovered around the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) -- an organ made famous a decade earlier by the young revolutionary Nelson Mandela -- and in 1958, Zuma joined the ANC and its Youth League. He said he was not an active participant, but he attended meetings and rallies. In 1959, he joined the South African Council of Trade Unions (SACTU) with his brother and soon was involved in an anti-pass campaign in the Noxamana district as well as in demonstrations opposing the Bantustan policy. In these activities, he found a fraternity among like-minded groups that defined his life’s work.

¶9. (SBU) In 1961, the year Nelson Mandela was arrested and jailed, Zuma was 19 years old and committed to fighting apartheid. That year, in Durban, he began courses with SACTU on Marxism-Leninism, the labor theory of value, and political discussions about colonialism, imperialism, the anti-colonial movement, and the nature of the struggle inside South Africa. While a member of a political study group in 1962, the year Mandela was sentenced to life in prison, Zuma was recruited into the militant armed wing of the ANC -- Umkonto wa Sizwe (the Spear of the Nation, aka “MK”). The following year, he was recruited into the SACP, though in his words, he did “little party work.” It was Zuma’s associations with these organizations at this critical tipping point in South Africa’s history that became the guiding commitment of his QAfrica’s history that became the guiding commitment of his life up until today.

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Life in the Struggle
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¶10. (SBU) As an underground member of the banned ANC and the SACP, young Jacob Zuma was urged to go into exile, gain military training, and join the fight against apartheid. In June 1963, the 21 year old Zuma was arrested with 45 other young comrades in Zeerust, in the Transvaal (now North West Province), as they were walking to Botswana into self-imposed exile. He was detained for ninety days, then tried and sentenced to ten years in prison for “conspiracy to overthrow the government.” Zuma spent the next ten years incarcerated with many other political prisoners, including the senior ANC leadership in prison such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, among other political prisoners at the infamous Robben Island. While in Robben Island, in what had become the ANC’s graduate school, they discussed the U.S. civil rights movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, the African independence movement, and the global ideological contest of the Cold War.

¶11. (SBU) Zuma rarely discusses this period of his life in public, nor did his biography speak frankly about that experience, his relationships, and what he learned. He does say that many important people there engaged in serious political debates and disagreements, but he failed to say who they were or what they argued about. The only insight he provided says he held many responsible positions within ANC structures at Robben Island, he was a mentor for students, and at the end was Chairman of the Political Committee. In the culture of the revolutionary anti-apartheid movements, his presence at Robben Island during Mandela’s first decade there is the best possible “struggle credential” he could possibly have acquired to rise in the movement. Released from prison at the age of 32 in 1974, Zuma immediately re-engaged the struggle with the ANC Natal underground.



(PART TWO MISSING - MrK)


SUBJECT: PART 3 OF 3: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SOUTH AFRICA’S NEW PRESIDENT
Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 08:51
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 PRETORIA 000954
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED
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Summary
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¶1. (SBU) This is the third of three messages that aim to reveal a comprehensive background picture of Jacob Zuma, the President of the ruling African National Congress party (ANC), who was inaugurated as the fourth post-apartheid president of South Africa. The first message was released before Zuma was inaugurated, and the last two will be released following his ascendancy. End Summary.

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Zuma Destined for Greatness
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¶2. (SBU) The global emergence of the anti-apartheid and disinvestment movements gained momentum in the 1970s and the 1980’s, such that even the USG adopted a sanctions policy against the apartheid regime. Under international diplomatic, political, military, and economic pressure, the SAG decided that apartheid was no longer sustainable. Negotiations with Nelson Mandela, who was serving a life sentence in Robben Island, opened the door for his release from prison and the un-banning of the African National Congress (ANC) and other opposition and anti-apartheid political parties. When SAG President F.W. de Klerk un-banned the ANC in 1990, Jacob Zuma, the ANC’s Intelligence and Security chief in exile, was one of the first high level ANC operatives to return to South Africa. Zuma immediately became involved in negotiations concerned with dismantling apartheid laws and governance, facilitating the repatriation of those in exile, as well as the release of all political prisoners. It was between 1990 and 1994 that Zuma achieved his most important success: negotiating an end to the spiral of violence between the ANC and the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) -- that believed in Zulu tradition and primacy -- and resulted in thousands of politically-related deaths. Zuma is likely the most prominent ANC Zulu politician -- even eclipsing Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Moreover, his own Zulu ethnicity and identity was a major asset, convincing the Zulus of KwaZulu Natal to support the ANC’s leadership, the new ANC constitution, and reconciliation as he urged a non-violent way for the opposing political movements to communicate. Though sporadic outbreaks of Zulu-ANC violence occurred up until 2009, the intensity, frequency, and number of deaths have reduced to a very small fraction compared to the early 1990s. This achievement remains one of the most important bases for Zuma’s stature, popularity and support among the ANC rank and file.

¶3. (SBU) For the decades of his imprisonment, Mandela was the most recognized icon of the ANC as well as a global symbol of freedom, perseverance, and resistance to apartheid. Upon his release, he led the ANC’s efforts to create a majority-based, multi-racial democratic system founded on a progressive constitution based on democratic best practices around the world. In the period before the end of apartheid following the 1994 election which made Mandela the first democratically-elected president of South Africa, Zuma was appointed to key roles in the ANC and participated in their political decisions and negotiations. In 1994, his supporters say, he stepped aside so that Thabo Mbeki could stand unopposed as Mandela’s Deputy President. He had one unsuccessful campaign to become the premier of KwaZulu Natal Qunsuccessful campaign to become the premier of KwaZulu Natal and in 1994 was appointed the Deputy Premier of that province by his old comrade and sometimes adversary Thabo Mbeki. Between 1994 and 1996, Zuma was KwaZulu Natal’s provincial chairman of the ANC as well as MEC for Economic Development and Tourism. In 1996, he was re-elected as Chair of the ANC in KwaZulu Natal and the same year became the ANC’s National Chairperson -- one of the top six jobs in the party.

¶4. (SBU) His highest office -- prior to his current status as President-elect of South Africa following a vote in Parliament on May 6, 2009 -- was ANC Deputy President and Member of Parliament, as he served as Deputy State President in the Mbeki Administration from 1999 to 2005. Upon attaining the party Deputy Presidency, by tradition of succession in the ANC, Zuma was believed to be Mbeki’s heir apparent, destined to succeed to the presidency in his time. But there were bumps in the road. He served as an unofficial peace mediator and diplomatic troubleshooter in the region (Zimbabwe, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and helped the ANC build a rapport with trade unions, traditional leaders, and other political parties. Zuma developed the reputation of being humble, charismatic, loyal, hard-working, and committed to improving the lives of South Africans. In 1999, based on this profile, he was appointed Deputy President of the ANC and became the Deputy President of South Africa in the first Mbeki administration. He was dismissed by Mbeki as SAG Deputy President in 2005 as a result of being implicated in the corruption trial of his friend and financial advisor Schabir Shaik. In 2006, he was charged with rape of a family friend, but was acquitted. Following Shaik’s conviction of bribing Zuma for personal gain, Zuma was indicted and charged with multiple counts of corruption, accepting bribes, tax evasion, and money laundering.

¶5. (SBU) Zuma’s rise to the pinnacle of South African politics at the same time that serious questions about his character were headline news is an astonishing political achievement in itself. Zuma is known as a populist whose rise occurred in partnership with leftist constituencies in the ANC. Despite criminal allegations against him, he remained popular in the party, unlike Mbeki who came to be hated. Zuma is particularly popular among Zulu ethnic and Youth Leagues; their defense of him claims he has served the people well, there are others worse than him, and he is much better than Mbeki. Some of his most ardent supporters promised to kill and die for him while others threatened that if Zuma were to be convicted, “blood would flow” and they would make the country “ungovernable.” To them, Zuma had a “right” to be president. Mbeki believed that a Zuma presidency would be a disaster for South Africa and would split the ANC. Zuma’s supporters counter-claimed that Mbeki was a disaster for the poor and he was the one splitting the party, creating a strong presidency that acted without reference to party instruction. In 2007, well after the conviction of his friend Shaik for bribery and corruption, Zuma was also indicted for having a corrupt relationship with Shaik. The charges were set aside in September 2008 due to lack of preparedness by the prosecutors to proceed with the case.

¶6. (SBU) Despite Mbeki’s intellect and experience as well as his apparent success as a leader, politician, and diplomat, Zuma out-maneuvered him by manipulating the party base through the district offices and portraying himself as the victim via the image-making machinery of the ANC. Pundits thought Mbeki was the smartest and most effective political leader of his generation, but on December 17, 2007 in Polokwane, Limpopo, the ANC declared Zuma the clear favorite, beginning Mbeki’s surprising slide into political obscurity. Days following his election, corruption charges were re-filed against Zuma, causing a leadership crisis in the ANC that was only resolved in September 2008 when the Zuma-led NEC forced Mbeki to resign as President of South Africa -- a deliberate act of triumphant revenge just eight months short of the end of his second five year term. Kgalema Motlanthe (septel), Qof his second five year term. Kgalema Motlanthe (septel), the ANC Deputy President, was sworn in as South Africa’s third post-apartheid president, but his seven month tenure was purposefully that of a care-taker, marking time until the president in waiting took office.

¶7. (SBU) Following a year-and-a-half of controversial high profile court challenges, appeals, and counter-suits, all charges against Zuma were dropped only weeks before the election in April 2009. His supporters’ adoration only grew as his detractors characterized him as an unlettered and corrupt buffoon surrounded by crass and intimidating socialist sycophants. Zuma loyalists ignored critiques that he is a charismatic populist and political chameleon who tells each audience exactly what they want to hear, that he is a man without his own vision or policy center. His supporters understand that Zuma has one over-riding policy -- loyalty to the ANC and improving the lives of the rural poor above all else.

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Keys To Zuma’s Personality
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¶8. (SBU) Zuma has clearly weathered numerous storms during recent years and he used several tactics of political survival that give clues to his personality and leadership style. First, he used the power of persuasion to build strong alliances. Faced with enormous challenges to his political career, Zuma built a strong support team and pulled his family close to him. He also relied heavily on his contacts in KwaZulu Natal Second, he leveraged on the infrastructure and networks of his friends. The perceived political conspiracy against Zuma became a reality in the minds of many South Africans -- including Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Chris Nicholson -- and this triggered a groundswell of sympathy for him. The ANC Youth League, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and the South African Communist Party (SACP) gave him a political platform to express his views. He also worked closely with business people who had local and international networks. They extended their influence so he could counter the negative images that his adversaries had built of him. Third, he remained focused on key tasks. Throughout the political crisis he faced after Mbeki fired him, Zuma focused on his oft-repeated assertion that he was innocent and that he was the victim of a systematic abuse of power. Fourth, Zuma understood that the main thrust of the political conspiracy would have been to remove him from the ANC, and the ANC from him. His best response would be to live the values of the ANC throughout the crisis period, and become the epitome of an ANC cadre -- which he did. He built extensive relationships in Parliament and with ANC branches across the country. As he began to live the values of the ANC, the ruling party found it more difficult to distance itself from him.

¶9. (SBU) Fifth, Zuma delegated effectively while never abandoning his responsibilities. Zuma is outstanding at delegating jobs to those around him. According to those closest to Zuma, “his demeanor in the face of adversity helped to create a positive atmosphere inside his war-rooms.” Sixth, he always maintained the moral high ground and remained authentic throughout. No matter how hard detractors tried to break his spirit by name-calling and leaking information, Zuma never lost his composure. In the midst of his toughest times, Zuma visited his working-class supporters and the unemployed. Seventh, he improvised his communication methods -- and found success doing so. When he realized that much of the media in South Africa was against him becoming the next leader, he resorted to positive imagery. He became the dignified underdog, and he painted those against him as shameless bullies and cowards. Last, Zuma used smart aggression as a tool to wear down his opponents. Throughout the most difficult times of the past few years, Zuma came across as reluctant to draw first blood, only displaying subtle determination to take the fight to his aggressors. This is consistent with a leader that is aware of his own strengths -- smart power.

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Comment
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¶10. (SBU) As Zuma’s presidency begins, many outstanding questions remain about his government and his policies. His close association with the ideological left of the ANC Qclose association with the ideological left of the ANC alliance has raised some worries about the impact on economic policy by close Zuma allies in the SACP and COSATU. He has reassured investors their assets will be secure under his administration, but has also called for the redistribution of wealth in the interests of the poor. The ANC has led the world to expect a more intimate intertwining of the ruling party and the state as well as a deployment of public officials whose standard of conduct and effectiveness will be their loyalty to Zuma and the ANC and their willingness to carry out ANC policies. With a relatively weak opposition but respected courts and activist civil society, there is optimism that a Zuma administration will, at worst, muddle through. There are many top performers in the ANC, and the ANC tradition of collective decision-making will define the policy context of the Zuma administration. One can only guess how South Africa will evolve under a Zuma presidency -- which he promises will only be for one term. South Africans have suffered many more and greater tragedies than an elected government with a near two-thirds majority. It is trite to say, but “time will tell.” In this case, such a statement rings true for South Africa in 2009. LA LIME

Labels: JACOB ZUMA, WIKILEAKS CABLES

posted by MrK @ 6:51 PM