South Africa - Head of Government

HE Mr Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma took office as President of South Africa on 9 May 2009.

He is also President of the African National Congress (ANC) since taking over its leadership in December 2007.

Mr Zuma had earlier served as Deputy President of South Africa from 1999 to 2005.

He was Deputy President of the ANC in 1997 after serving as both Chairperson of the ANC, as well as Chairperson of its KwaZulu-Natal branch in 1994. During the period from 1994 to 1997, Mr Zuma also served in the Executive Committee of Economic Affairs and Tourism for the provincial government.

In 1991, he was elected Deputy Secretary-General of the ANC.

Mr Zuma was one of the first ANC leaders to return to South Africa in 1990 following the removal of the ban on the ANC, to begin the process of negotiation with the ruling F W de Klerk government. In the same year, Mr Zuma was elected Chairperson of the ANC’s Southern Natal branch and he led the party towards a number of peace accords with the rival Inkatha Freedom Party.

From 1975 to 1987, Mr Zuma was actively involved in working for the ANC branches in Swaziland and Mozambique. He became a member of the National Executive Committee in 1977, and served as Deputy Chief Representative and later Chief Representative of the ANC in Mozambique until 1984. Mr Zuma also served on the ANC’s Military and Political Committees, and was Chief of Intelligence at the ANC head office in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1987.

Between 1974 and 1975, he helped to re-establish ANC underground structures in the then Natal province. Mr Zuma first joined the ANC in 1958 and became a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the military wing of the ANC, in 1962. This was shortly after the banning of the ANC in 1960.

Mr Zuma was born on 12 April 1942 in Inkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.