SOUTH AFRICA AND JACOB ZUMA

Jacob Zuma is expected to become South Africa's president. He is a Zulu and is seen as being a 'leftist'.

In the 'right wing' Mail on Sunday (UK), 31 March, 2009, Peter Hitchens tells us about South Africa and Jacob Zuma.

He has four wives and faced 783 corruption charges: PETER HITCHENS on South Africa's next president

Among the points made:

1. Zuma rallies include a song called Bring Me My Machine Gun.

2. Zuma is alleged to be taking campaign money from Colonel Gaddafi.

3. Zuma has faced 783 counts of fraud, racketeering, tax evasion and corruption which have never come to court.

4. Zuma has been acquitted of rape.

5. South Africa has recent experience of:

'terrifying crime',

'the pestilence of corruption',

'the absurd purchase of needless submarines and aircraft',

AIDS,

'violent xenophobic rage against uncontrolled mass immigration',

'the unstoppable spread of shanty towns',

'electricity blackouts',

'an overstretched water supply',

'a railway system fraying at the edges'.

6. "The new rich and the holidaymakers are apparently oblivious of the filth, hunger, alcoholic stupor, drug-taking and wretchedness which lie just the other side of every hill."

7. Zuma has at least four wives and 18 children.

He joined the Communist Party in 1962.

He was 'a much-feared' intelligence chief in the ANC's 'ruthless' armed wing, Spear of the Nation.

He underwent 'military training' in the old Soviet Union in 1978.

8. A party called the Congress of the People (COPE) has just scored 'surprisingly' well in council by-elections near Springbok.

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South Africa is important.

Journalist John Pilger, in his book 'Freedom Next Time', tells us:

1. South Africa is rich in minerals.

2. Thanks to the World Bank, the average black household income has fallen by 19% since independence.

3. "The unspoken deal was that whites would retain economic control in exchange for black majority rule."

4. "Before 1994, there were secret meetings in Britain between Thabo Mbeki, the white elite and the big global companies with links to South Africa.

5. Mandela said to Pilger:

"We do not want to challenge big business that can take fright and take away their money . . . You can call it Thatcherite but, for this country, privatisation is the fundamental policy."

Pilger writes of Mandela that "as the first liberation president, he ordered a ridiculous and bloody invasion of tiny Lesotho.

"He allowed South African armaments to be sold to Algeria, Colombia and Peru, which have notorious human rights records.

"He invited the Indonesian mass murderer General Suharto to South Africa and gave him the country's highest award . . . He recognised the brutal Burmese junta as a legitimate government."



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