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| South Africa: Jacob Zuma Elected As New President |
| Cape Town, 07.05.2009 |
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| Bathandwa Mbola
6 May 2009
Parliament — Jacob Zuma has been elected President of South Africa, after receiving the highest number of votes by Members of Parliament in the National Assembly
Chief Justice Pius Langa announced a short while ago that of the 327 votes cast, African National Congress (ANC) President Jacob Zuma had received 277 votes, while Congress of the People's (Cope) Mvume Dandala received 47 votes. A total of 3 ballot papers were spoilt.
Members of Parliament, who were sworn in earlier today, had voted in a secret ballot.
"In terms of Item 6 of part A, Schedule A of the Constitution, I declare the honourable Jacob Zuma duly elected President of the Republic of South Africa," announced Chief Justice Langa, who then congratulated the President-elect.
Parliamentarians broke into cheer after the announcement and chanted: "Zuma, Zuma, Zuma."
Various political parties were given the chance to address the House and congratulate Mr Zuma. Cope President Dandala gave Mr Zuma the party's best wishes.
"Mr Speaker, Mr President-elect, on behalf of Cope, I wish to congratulate you sir on your election as the President of South Africa. We accept that the people of South Africa have spoken and we will give our support to the highest office of this nation.
"We extend our good wishes to you in the coming years as you lead the country in tackling its many challenges."
Mr Zuma will be inaugurated as President of the Repbulic at the Union Buildings on Saturday
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South African lawmakers elects Jacob Zuma
South African lawmakers elects Jacob Zuma
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Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print AP – South African President-elect Jacob Zuma smiles outside Parliament, after he and others were sworn in … By CLARE NULLIS, Associated Press Writer Clare Nullis, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 6, 2:19 pm ET
CAPE TOWN, South Africa – South Africa's parliament elected Jacob Zuma as president Wednesday, celebrating the astonishing rise of a self-educated teenage goatherd who transformed himself into the charismatic leader of Africa's economic powerhouse.
Zuma will be inaugurated Saturday, the culmination of a remarkable comeback for the former underground leader who survived prison under the former apartheid government, a rape allegation and corruption scandals on his way to the top job.
"I hope to lead the country on a path of friendship, cooperation, harmony, unity and faster change," said Zuma, declaring himself overwhelmed and humbled by a thundering outbreak of applause that greeted his election.
Zuma, 67, is to name his government Sunday — and world markets as well as ordinary people are eager to see whether he follows the pragmatic market-oriented path of his predecessors or reaches out to his powerful allies in the trade union and communist movements with more pro-poor policies.
In his address to parliament, Zuma promised to speed up progress on education, health and land reform, fight harder against crime, create more jobs and improve the lives of millions of impoverished black South Africans who have seen little benefit since apartheid ended 15 years ago.
"We mean business when we talk about faster change," Zuma said, adding that his immediate priority was to limit the fallout from the global economic crisis, which has pushed South African unemployment back up to 23.5 percent.
He also promised that his government would be "more hands on, more accessible" than past ones.
Zuma's long-dominant African National Congress party won elections last month with 65.9 percent of the vote, giving it 264 seats in the 400 member National Assembly but with less than the two-thirds majority needed to enact major budgetary plans or legislation unchallenged, or change the constitution.
The white-dominated Democratic Alliance party has 67 seats, the Congress of the People or COPE — formed last year by disgruntled ANC members — has 30 seats and the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party has 18, with smaller parties making up the balance.
COPE nominated its own leader Mvume Dandala for president, but Zuma easily defeated him by 277 votes to 47. The Democratic Alliance abstained.
Despite the ANC's majority, it lost support in the elections to COPE and the Democratic Alliance because of unease about Zuma's past. Just weeks before the April election, prosecutors dropped bribery and corruption charges against him because of misconduct by key investigators. And he was acquitted of rape in 2006.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of South Africa's anti-apartheid hero, Nelson Mandela, said Zuma has proved he could triumph over all obstacles.
"He is a capable leader that epitomizes our continued and resilient struggle against the worst that humanity has to offer and the hope that we as a nation shall triumph against all odds because of the best that we collectively can offer," she told parliament.
Opposition parties unsuccessfully challenged Madikizela-Mandela's nomination to parliament because of her criminal convictions. In 1991, she was sentenced to six years in jail for her role in a kidnapping case. The sentence was reduced to a fine on appeal, but she was later convicted of fraud and theft charges.
Both Madikizela-Mandela and Zuma command loyalty among poor South Africans who felt alienated by the aloofness and intellect of former President Thabo Mbeki.
In a biography released ahead of the parliamentary session, the ANC emphasized Zuma's humble origins in rural KwaZulu-Natal. He dropped out of school after his father died, studying at night and while herding goats. This experience inspired him to set up an education fund that has helped educate 20,000 poor children, according to the ANC.
During apartheid, Zuma became active in the banned ANC, was arrested in 1963 and was sentenced to 10 years on Robben Island — the prison where Mandela served decades and which has become one of South Africa's top tourist attractions.
In 1975, Zuma went into exile and helped organize ANC resistance to South Africa's white racist rule, returning home as apartheid crumbled.
For the first time, the ANC biography confirmed that Zuma has three wives — Sizakele, Nompumelelo and Tobeka Madiba — and 19 children "to whom he is very close."
Zuma is a member of the Zulu tribe, which allows men to have more than one wife. He has had two other wives — Kate Mantsho Zuma, who committed suicide in 2000, and Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, from whom he was divorced in 1998.
Dlamini Zuma was foreign affairs minister in the departing Cabinet and is expected to join her former husband's administration.
The ANC also quoted from Zuma's forthcoming autobiography.
"I have never failed to learn from my mistakes, nor repeat them, nor pretend I never committed them in the first place," he wrote. "I am made of sterner stuff, even if I say so myself. I am tempted to say I know no man alive who has witnessed the struggles that I have survived. They may have come close but not what I have gone through."
(This version CORRECTS Corrects that he was acquitted of rape in 2006 sted 1996.)
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