Zuma sweeps to resounding victory

2007-12-18 21:01

Polokwane - The "Zunami" swept to victory in Polokwane on Tuesday night, a bitterly-contested win that puts him firmly in line for the presidency of South Africa in 2009.

Jacob Zuma beat Thabo Mbeki with 2 329 against 1 505 votes in their race for the presidency of the African National Congress.

There were eight spoilt papers and one abstention.

This was announced by the electoral commission of the party to more than 4000 delegates at the ANC's national conference in Polokwane, Limpopo.

Mbeki was seeking a third term at the helm of the ANC.

The leadership campaign of Zuma, his deputy, was backed by the powerful Congress of SA Trade Unions, the SA Communist Party, five of the ANC's nine provinces, and the movement's youth and women's leagues.

It was Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi who declared two years ago that to stop Zuma would be like "trying to fight against the big wave of the tsunami".

The soundtrack to the campaign of the former liberation fighter was his trademark struggle song Awuleth' umshini wami (bring me my machine gun).

One more challenge

But despite the campaign backing from the left and his image as "pro-poor", Zuma's aides have maintained there will be no deviation from the economic policies the ANC has followed under Mbeki.

The 65-year-old Zuma has massive grassroots support in the ANC, particularly in his home province KwaZulu-Natal.

However he has stirred controversy with his views on women, gays and safe sex.

And he still faces one more challenge in his bid to lead the country: the possibility that the National Prosecuting Authority may take him back to court on corruption charges.

The charges, thrown out of court last year without a hearing, centre on his relationship with businessman and struggle comrade Schabir Shaik, who was found guilty in 2005 of soliciting an arms company bribe for Zuma and jailed for an effective 15 years.

Mbeki sacked Zuma as deputy president soon after the Shaik verdict.

Later that year Zuma was arrested on a rape charge, on which which was acquitted, but not after raising eyebrows with revelations that he knowingly had unprotected sex with an HIV positive woman some 30 years his junior, and took a shower afterwards to minimize his chances of contracting the disease.

Zuma's victory is a massive blow to Mbeki, who used his address at the opening of the Polokwane conference on Sunday to urge the party to opt for "ethical" leaders, and hit out at those in government who engaged in corruption.

There are fears that Zuma's leadership of the ANC will turn Mbeki into a lame-duck president for the rest of his term as head of state, which ends with the next general election in 2009.

Speaking to journalists before the results were announced, ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe said the ANC would wait and see what happened with the corruption charges.

"The issue of comrade Jacob Zuma facing fresh charges is very difficult to deal with, for the simple reason that many people can face allegations at some point or the other," he said.

"The fact of the matter is the State makes allegations and [a person] can be charged and prosecuted... and it will difficult to act against anybody on the basis of allegation."

Motlanthe said the Zuma case had already travelled through the courts once.

"The prosecution will have a second bite at him and we will see how that pans out."

He gave a lengthy explanation of a situation in the 80's where thousands of mineworkers were dismissed, including their president and used this as an example of how "sweetheart leadership" could be sought.

He said: "If we elect him (Zuma) we'll have to accept it, if he is charged, we will have to accept it. We will cross that bridge when we get to it."

- SAPA