Chronology

Political Profile

1942, April 12: Born in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) (then known as Zululand).

1958: Zuma joined the African National Congress (ANC)

1962: Zuma became a member of the militant wing of the ANC, the Umkhonto We Sizwe (Spear of the Nation).

1963: Zuma arrested for conspiring to overthrow the government.

1963 -1973: Zuma imprisoned for 10 years on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela and other leading ANC leaders.

1973-1975: Upon being released from prison, he helped re-establish ANC underground structures in the Natal Province (now known as KZN).

1975: Zuma left South Africa for Swaziland and thereafter Mozambique. He dealt with the arrival of thousands of exiles in the wake of the Soweto uprising in South Africa.

1977: Zuma became a member of the ANC National Executive Committee. He also served as Deputy Chief Representative of the ANC in Mozambique, a post he occupied until the signing of the Nkomati Accord between the Mozambican and South African governments in 1984.

1987, January: Zuma left Mozambique after considerable pressure on the Mozambican government by the South Africa's apartheid regime. He moved to the ANC Head Office in Lusaka, Zambia, where he was appointed Head of Underground Structures and shortly thereafter Chief of the Intelligence Department. He also served on the ANC's political and military council.

1990: Following the end of the ban on the ANC in February 1990, he was one of the first ANC leaders to return to South Africa to begin the process of negotiations with the apartheid regime. He was elected Chairperson of the ANC for the Southern Natal region, and took a leading role in fighting political violence in Natal between members of the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).

1994, January: Zuma was nominated ANC candidate for the Premiership ofKZN.

1994: Having lost KZN to the IFP, Zuma was appointed  Member of the Executive Committee (MEC) for Economic Affairs and Tourism for the KZN provincial government.

1994, December: Zuma was elected National Chairperson of the ANC and chairperson of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal.

1996: Zuma was re-elected to the position of chairperson of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal.

1997, December: Zuma  was elected Deputy President of the ANC at the National Conference held at Mafikeng.

1999, June: Zuma was appointed Executive Deputy President of South Africa, a position he held until mid 2005.

2005, June 14: Zuma became embroiled in a corruption related controversy after his financial advisor, Schabir Shaik, was convicted of corruption and fraud. Due to the allegations,  Zuma was dismissed as Deputy President.

2007, December 18: Zuma became the President of the ANC after defeating the incumbent Thabo Mbeki. This victory placed Zuma in a strong position to become the next president.

2007, December 27: Mr Mokotedi Joseph Mpshe, the acting NDPP, decided once again to indict Zuma on main counts including racketeering, corruption, money laundering, tax evasion and fraud, a decision which was followed by the service of an indictment on Zuma on 28 December 2007. 

2008, September: The decision to indict Zuam was set aside by the High Court.

2009, January 12: An appeal by the NDPP against the High Court's judgement setting aside the indictment against Zuma, was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeal, which led the way for the prosecution against Zuma to be reseumed.

2009, April 6: The NDPP decided that it was neither possible nor desirable for the NPA to proceed with the prosecution of Zuma, citing an abuse of the process in relation to the timing of the charging of Zuma in December 2007.

2009, April: Zuma elected President of South Africa.

Allegations of corruption and prosecution

1999, September: the decision by South Africa's first democratically elected government to purchase US$ 4.6 billion worth of weapons was described as the single largest, and one of the most controversial, public procurement deals in post-Apartheid South Africa.  In the 1995 Defence White Paper, the Ministry of Defence highlighted the need for restructuring and reviewing the status of the new South African National Defence Force.  This process resulted in the proposal of a multi-billion rand Strategic Arms Procurement Package, widely referred as the "Arms Deal".  The South African government announced this strategic arms procurement package - the acquisition of aircraft, helicopters, submarines and ships at a cost of ZAR29 billion.

1999, September: Ms Patricia de Lille, a member of Parliament, made allegations concerning corrupt practices during the arms deal.  This related to the purchase of armaments by the government of the Republic of South Africa from a number of overseas and local contractors.  As a result of her complaints, a number of State institutions, including the Auditor-General, the NPA and the Public Protector, became involved. 1

2000, November: After the Auditor-General found substantial irregularities in the arms deal, an investigation was launched. The Auditor-General himself was excluded from the investigating team.

2000, January: Jacob Zuma and the chief whip of the ANC, Tony Yengeni, were both investigated in respect of allegations that they abused their positions for financial benefit in the arms deal. Their names were not publicly revealed.

2001 May: public hearings were held into the arms deal. The resulting report, published in November, cleared members of President Mbeki's cabinet of wrongdoing but criticised the government's tendering procedures.

2002, November: Richard Young, a director of a computer systems firm that lost out on a defence contract, won a legal battle to compel the release of documents relating to the arms deal.  Investigations by the Scorpions revealed that Jacob Zuma accepted a bribe of R 500,000.00.

2003, August 23: the NDPP,, Bulelani Ngcuka, dropped corruption charges against Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who was said to be the recipient of alleged corrupt payments from Schabir Shaik.  These charges were only to be revived after Shaik was convicted and sentenced in June 2005.

2004: Zuma became a key figure mentioned in the Schabir Shaik trial. Schabir Shaik, a Durban businessman and his (Zuma's) financial advisor, was questioned over bribery in the course of the purchase of Valour class frigates for the South African Navy, a proposed waterfront development in Durban, and lavish spending on Zuma's residence in Nkandla.

2005, May 30: the Durban High Court handed down its final judgment. Shaik was found guilty of corruption for paying Zuma ZAR1.2 million  (US$185,000) to further their relationship and for soliciting a bribe from the French arms company Thomson-CSF, as well as guilty of fraud for writing off more than R1 million (US$ 154,000) of Zuma's unpaid debts. 2

2005, June 14: President Mbeki told a joint sitting of parliament that "in the interest of the honourable Deputy President, the government, our young democratic system and our country, it would be best to release the honourable Jacob Zuma from his responsibilities as Deputy President of the republic and member of the cabinet."

2005, June 20: The case was against Zuma revived after Zuma's former financial adviser, Shabir Shaik, was convicted of corruption and fraud.

2006, July: Zuma's corruption trial started in the High Court. Zuma threatened to call the President as a witness, saying only he could clarify the true circumstances of the arms deal.

2006, July 31: The matter involving two corruption charges against Zuma was struck from the roll after the prosecution applied for a postponement to complete its investigations and finalise the indictment.  The postponement was refused by the High Court after the prosecution indicated that it was not ready to proceed with the trial, which led to the matter being struck from the roll.

2007, November 8: The Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the NPA with respect to appeals relating to various search and seizure exercises, and rejected four appeals made by Zuma's defence team. This ruling pertained to the NPA obtaining the personal diary of a senior member of a French arms company, which could have provided information relating to Zuma's possible corrupt practices during the awarding of the arms deal.

2007, December 20: The NPA announced that the prosecution authority has enough evidence to reinstate corruption charges against Zuma, suggesting he would be recharged soon. In response, the ANC, now dominated by Zuma allies, voted to disband the Scorpions - a business unit within the NPA - which, they say, was responsible for a conspiracy surrounding Zuma. Timeline: 3

2007, December 28: Zuma served with an indictment to stand trial in the High Court on various counts of racketeering, money laundering, corruption and fraud.

2008, August 4: Zuma appeared in court. The charges were believed to be linked to the $5bn arms procurement deal by the South African government in 1999. 4

2008, September 12:  Judge Chris Nicholson held that Zuma's corruption charges were unlawful on procedural grounds in that the NDPPdid not give Zuma a chance to make representations before deciding to charge him (a requirement of the South Africa Constitution), and directed the state to pay legal costs. The judge alleged that political interference played a role in the decision to recharge Zuma. Nicholson also stressed that his ruling did not relate to Zuma's guilt or innocence, but was merely on a procedural point.

2009, January 12: South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal reversed a decision to dismiss corruption charges against Jacob Zuma. The ruling was considered as a partial blow to the ruling party, which claimed vindication for Zuma in September 2008 after the High Court dismissed the case against Zuma on a technicality and implied that there had been political interference.  The Supreme Court of Appeal upheld an appeal by the NDPP against the judgment by Judge Nicholson on 12 September 2008 in which he had set aside the indictment of Mr Zuma on 18 main counts of racketeering, corruption, money laundering, tax evasion and fraud. The effect of the judgment on appeal was that the prosecution could proceed.  It was held that although the trial judge, i.e. Judge Nicholson, had recognized that political meddling was not an issue that had to be determined, he nevertheless proceeded to focus a substantial portion of his judgement on the question.  The Supreme Court of Appeal proceeded to focus on whether the findings relating to political meddling were appropriate or could be justified on the papers. 5

2009, March 17: it is reported that Thint (Pty) Ltd (formerly  known as Thomson-CSF (Pty) Ltd), and subsidiary of Thales International Africa Ltd) , a French arms company involved in Zuma's case, filed papers in the Pietermaritzburg High Court arguing that the state should drop the corruption case against it because it was impossible for them to have a "fair trial" since there was a perception that the Supreme Court of Appeal was already "convinced of their guilt" before their trial could even take place.

2009, March 18: South African prosecutors considered dropping corruption charges against Jacob Zuma after he lodged legal representations with  the NPA), pertaining, inter alia, to policy aspects militating against prosecution.   In the course of the representations, the defence made certain allegations concerning the alleged manipulation by the NPA of the timing of the charges brought against Zuma in December 2005. 6

2009, April 6: The NPA dropped corruption charges against Jacob Zuma on the basis that there had been an abuse of the process with regard to the timing of the charging of Zuma, alleging the Head of the Scorpions used the legal process for a purpose outside of and extraneous to the prosecution itself.  . The dropping of the case paved the way for Mr Zuma to become the next president without the looming threat