Why Zacob Zuma Is Bad News for South Africa

Jacob Zuma or JZ recently became the president of African National Congress and in on his way to succeed Thabo Mbeki when he steps down later this year. Why is this bad news? Well, for starters, the guy still has pending corruption charges in courts. He recently got out of rape charges with a very interesting line of reasoning. Lets look at everything one by one:

1) JZ has more than 20 children from 6 women and recently took over his fourth wife. One of the former wife is current foreign minister of South Africa

2) JZ was charged of rape and he had to say the following during his trial: He said it was his duty to have sex with the accuser because she was wearing a kanga, which is a short African wrap, and if he had not done that, she would have remained unfulfilled!!! He went on to say: : "In the Zulu culture, you cannot just leave a woman if she is ready". Zuma was finally found not guilty.

3) The other interesting aspect of this case is that the woman was HIV positive. At that time, Zuma was president of National Aids Council but did see enough reason to wear a condom while having sex. He thought that a shower would be enough. Now you are talking about a country where 1 in 7 adults have AIDS...so much for leadership at the top!!!

4) Finally, this guy is still facing fraud charges in defence contracts and tons of other things.

What is disturbing is that this country is not Congo or Liberia or Sierra Leone...this is South Africa, one country that has done a really good job in transitioning to democracy after the end of Apartheid. Post Apartheid, thanks to the leadership of Dr. Mandela, the country did not open up the balance sheet to retribute against white population. Mbeki has again done a reasonable job of taking the country forward. I am not sure that Jacob Zuma's credentials provide a lot of hope. It would be a disaster if South Africa goes the way a lot of African countries have went. This is the biggest and the best governed country in Africa. African continent needs a robust working democracy in South Africa to prove that democracy, peace and justice can work.