Foreign Policy Blogs

Jacob Zuma v. The World: The Latest Twists

So, is Jacob Zuma going to face corruption charges or not? The possibility certainly is still strong, though the ANC has vowed to fight any such reinstatement of graft accusations against their presumed future presidential candidate.

But what stands out most in the latest salvos in this increasingly byzantine drama is the absolutely blistering and unequivocal Supreme Court response to Judge Christopher Nicholson and his findings of political interference on the part of Zuma's opponents, most notably Thabo Mbeki. Nicholson's findings provided the excuse for Mbeki's political enemies to orchestrate his ouster from the presidency. On Mbeki's part this news has to come as a moral, if Pyhrric, victory. Nicholson, meanwhile, may want to start updating his curriculum vita.

 

Author

Derek Catsam

Derek Catsam is a Professor of history and Kathlyn Cosper Dunagan Professor in the Humanities at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. He is also Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University. Derek writes about race and politics in the United States and Africa, sports, and terrorism. He is currently working on books on bus boycotts in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s and on the 1981 South African Springbok rugby team's tour to the US. He is the author of three books, dozens of scholarly articles and reviews, and has published widely on current affairs in African, American, and European publications. He has lived, worked, and travelled extensively throughout southern Africa. He writes about politics, sports, travel, pop culture, and just about anything else that comes to mind.

Areas of Focus:
Africa; Zimbabwe; South Africa; Apartheid

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