Tutu on Zuma
"South African party leader strives to reassure world; Zuma's record, views inspire fear in some" by Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times | October 13, 2008
JOHANNESBURG - Jacob Zuma, the leader of the ruling African National Congress, has been around the world trying to overcome the fears. At home, he has met with white farmers, businessmen, Jews, and poor white Afrikaners to put them at ease.
Still, the 66-year-old Zuma's campaign to reassure the world hasn't answered some big questions: What does he stand for? What would he actually do as South African president?
Question; Did the white ever worry about what the black thought?
The son of a Durban maid, Zuma had little education. He joined the ANC military wing as a teenager, was arrested and spent 10 years in jail, where he learned to read and where his singing and organization of a choral group raised morale.
After his release, he organized the ANC's intelligence arm. Among his closest supporters are former ANC intelligence operatives and those who ran Operation Vula, the underground movement to smuggle exiled guerrillas back into South Africa. Zuma's many supporters see him as a charming counter to the elite who have run the ANC.
I'm getting the feeling the MSM doesn't like him.
The ANC took a probusiness approach under Mbeki. Zuma, viewed as an advocate for the poor, has offered few specifics on how he would deliver real change for the impoverished. Zuma has shown himself to be a clever strategist. He can be earthy, social and comfortable in his own skin, whether he's wearing traditional Zulu leopard pelt attire, a T-shirt or a suit. He has a reputation as a good listener and mediator.
Zuma and his allies are at the heart of the ANC's move to disband the Scorpions, the country's most effective force for fighting corruption and organized crime, which charged him with corruption, graft, and racketeering. The charges were thrown out by a judge Sept. 12 on a technicality, but their substance has not been tested. --more--"
Gee, usually when the charges are thrown out, that's it here in AmeriKa.
