Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma ( Zulu: [geɮʱejiɬeˈkisa ˈzʱuma] ; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan name Msholozi , [1] [2] [3] and was a former anti- apartheid activist, member of Umkhonto we Sizwe , and president of the African National Congress (ANC) between 2007 and 2017.
Zuma was born in the rural region of Nkandla , which is now part of the KwaZulu-Natal province and the centre of Zuma's support base. He joined the ANC at the age of 17 in 1959, and spent ten years in Robben Island Prison as a political prisoner . He went into exile in 1975, and was ultimately appointed head of the ANC's intelligence department. After the ANC was unbanned in 1990, he quickly rose through the party's national leadership and became deputy secretary general in 1991, national chairperson in 199
Zuma was elected president of South Africa in the 2009 general election and took office on 9 May. The criminal charges against him were formally withdrawn the same week. As president, he launched the R4-trillion National Infrastructure Plan and signed a controversial nuclear power deal with the Russian government, which was blocked by the Western Cape High Court in 2017. As a former member of the South African Communist Party , he increasingly relied on left-wing populist rhetoric, and in his 2017 State of