Greetings Dramatards!
Since nearly half of you appear to be Zoomers , and don't even remember the 9/11 World Trade Centre attacks on television, I would imagine fewer yet still will be aware of the existence of the big man Zacob Zuma - the 3rd Democratically elected president (2009β2018) of the Republic of South Africa.
This guy basically r*ped South Africa's economy into the ground, and his fantastical levels of corruption, and the corruption he enabled in South Africa have been virtually irreversible. He was responsible for enabling the Gupta mafia to enact "staatskaping" or "State Capture", where corruption was so rife, that bands of organized criminals literally took control of key installations like mines and trains and national budgets.
He nearly singlehandedly reignited ethnic tension between his modern Xhosas and Zulus with his abrasive behaviour towards his predecessor, president Thabo Mbeki.
He had open corruption where he normalized the grand scale nepotism hiring friends and giving key governmental positions towards friends and family members.
He reportedly had been married at least 7 times, divorced 7 times, was polyamorous, and has had at least 10 childrin, which made the Christians and Muslims of RSA foam at the mouth due to their national leader's infidelity
https://mg.co.za/africa/2021-07-13-all-the-presidents-women-2
Basically, before Julius Malema arrived on the scene, Jacob Zuma had stolen the national stage for prime time national drama and embarrassment.
But the nuclear moment of seeth and mouth-foaming occurred when Jacob Zuma had been accused of r*pe, and the media fiasco which followed.
WHO IS JACOB ZUMA:
Like many people who had no idea who Trump was before he was elected, or became a very serious running candidate for Burgerland National election, so too did South Africans at the time have no idea who Jacob Zuma was, who would seemingly skyrocket his way into power as the Head of the ANC party in 2006, and his meteoric rise to presidency of RSA in 2007.
However, people who studied politics and knew history was already completely aware who Jacob Zuma was in 2005, and that the man had been a top ANC power-figure since the early days of High-Apartheid in 1980, and that he had always been a very influencial member of ANC politics, especially the Zulu-portions of the ANC party, where he was hailed as a national hero by his Zulu constituents for his efforts to counter the National Party regime in Kwazulu-Natal province.
Example: He joined the ANC at the age of 17 in 1959, and spent ten years in Robben Island Prison as a political prisoner. So he was one of the most prominent Revolutionaries of the ANC.
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. (And trust me we WILL be getting back to Nkandla with another colossal Looongpost about Nkandla)
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 1994, and deputy president in 1997. These are boring facts dramatards don't need to know, but it's important to demonstrate that Zuma had always been a key politician, and prominent ANC member since the very moment the ANC gained power in the new Democratic RSA - and that it was mostly white liberals who was surprised by this man who would propel himself to infamy between 2005-2007.
Zuma was the deputy president of South Africa from 1999 to 2005 under President Thabo Mbeki, Nelson Mandela's successor.
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THE ARMS DEAL & SCABIR SHAIK:
Mbeki dismissed Zuma on 14 June 2005 after Zuma's financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was convicted of making corrupt payments to Zuma in connection with an Arms Deal, with a weapons manufacturer called Thomson Holdings. Who was Shaik and the illegal Arms Deal? Doesn't matter, not important - what is significant is to understand, already at this point in time, Zuma was thoroughly corrupt, and in bed with friends in low places.
https://www.armsdeal-vpo.co.za/articles07/the_story.html
Thomson Holdings (a weapons manufacturer), through its South African subsidiary, was seeking influence in government circles in this period, as the change from the National Party government to the ANC government had left it with few influential friends. To get an arms contract, it would need strong political backing. Shaik, had friends who was in charge of arms acquisition at the SA Department of Defence.
A deal established a fraudulent and corrupt relationship between Durban-based businessman Schabir Shaik and Jacob Zuma. Shaik's trial was the subject of intense media attention due to the involvement of several high-profile members of the South African government. Though Shaik claimed that his financial dealings were legitimate, on 30 May 2005, the Durban High Court handed down its final judgment. He was pronounced guilty of corruption for paying Zuma 1.2 million Rand (US$185,000) to further their relationship and for soliciting a bribe from the French arms company Thomson-CSF, now Thales, as well as guilty of fraud for writing off more than R1 million (US$154,000) of Zuma's unpaid debts.
https://web.archive.org/web/20030924102520/http://www.suntimes.co.za/2003/08/31/news/news17.asp
Yet in spite of ALL of this dirty laundry being aired on the news, Zuma would somehow walk away from this trial unscathed. His connections with all of the various factions within the ANC government enabled him to not only spring free of any consequences of using his government position to fascilitate cronyism, but still keep his fricking position within the ANC.
ZUMA VS MBEKI:
Jacob Zuma had previously been a close ally of President Thabo Mbeki, and they had served as ANC Deputy President and President respectively since the 50th National Conference in December 1997.
However, with such a massive national scandal having tainted Jacob Zuma's name, his presence had become toxic, and Mbeki gave him the boot from his administration. Their relationship publicly soured after Mbeki fired Zuma from the national deputy presidency in June 2005. Zuma saw this as a betrayal and public and private spats between the two became common.
The relationship became so ugly, that ethnic tensions between the Zula (Zuma) and Mbeki (Xhosa) would flare up downstream between their respective peoples, both between previous inter-racial ANC partnerships, and between the common everyday people Zulus and Xhosas.
Zuma retained the ANC deputy presidency, and, in this close proximity, the acrimony between the pair deepened and spread into other pockets of the party and state, eventually becoming what Susan Booysen has called "no-holds barred, a brutal and all-consuming disagreement between two major ANC groupings."
https://mg.co.za/article/2006-06-02-mbeki-denies-conflict-with-zuma
https://www.npr.org/2007/12/07/16860087/anc-leadership-battle-causes-crisis-in-party
Of course, I'm getting ahead of myself. The Zuma-vs-Mbeki rivalry would reach boiling point 2 years after this (2007), but in the meantime we will rewind back to Zuma's impending R*pe-accusation trial (2005). I'm merely mentioning the Zuma-VS-Mbeki rivalry so that you dramatards can understand the emotion and factions which were present within the country's black population and ANC leaders once the R*pe-trial would commence.
The wingcuckery of pro-ANC supporters, and the factions within the ANC, namely pro-Zuma, pro-Mbeki, and the ethnic loyalties of Zulus and Xhosas, would mean that there were extreme political emotions rampant by the time Zuma would be charged with r*pe - as people and politicians had much to gain or lose if Zuma was indicted of his accused crime, thus from the onset, wingcuckery had made any impartiality an impossible notion with the Zuma-r*pe trial
2005: ZUMA ACCUSED OF R*PE:
Jacob Zuma was charged with r*pe on 6 December 2005. He was prosecuted in the Johannesburg High Court between March and May 2006
It's important for dramatards to understand that although there are extreme leftwing and liberal policies within the modern Republic of South Africa at the national level, it does NOT mean that the actual South Africans, especially the black peeps of RSA are in fact on average liberal or leftwing. Policies like gov-mandated affirmative action and monthly grants are only supported by the majority of ANC-supporters or blacks, because they BENEFIT from it, not because there is general consensus of left wing type thinking within the black peoples of RSA
Similarly, RSA black people tend to be shockingly conservative, in contrast to their national politicians. This shock is usual for euro or burger libtards at places like UCT (University of Cape Town), where liberals/feminists/minority-rights-activists come to the shock than the average SA black person is substantially more religious and culturally conservative than their western contemporaries and that what is written by RSA law, and actually practiced in the SA homelands, are very different indeed.
The biggest culture shock for libtards tend to be modern Zulus, whom are not strong believers of modern feminism.
https://africasacountry.com/2021/07/what-is-black-conservatism-in-south-africa
Modern Zulus still practice a strong hierarchy between men and women, similar to as how the famous yank 1950s timeframe depicted men as heads of the household, and women meant for domestic work. In the homelands inside KwaZulu-Natal this is especially prevalent - where women's rights may be similar to than of the 1800s. This extreme contrast if never addressed as Zulus make the single most populous and potent voting bloc of the ANC. Liberals turn a blind eye or are blind entirely.
Point is, it's not fair of me to make strong and sweeping statements of the entire population of South African, zulus, but if I personally were to be reincarnated as a south african woman - being a zulu woman would be at the bottom of my list.
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Then there's other things which put zulus apart - Polygamy! Not the reddit-cuckold kind, but the old harem type kind.
https://eshowe.com/zulu-polygamy
Zulus are traditionalist who are ardent practitioners of Polygamy.
And oh yeah, the Zulus are similar to China and India in that male infants are preferred.
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This polygamy has created several societal issues in SA.
https://www.news24.com/news24/polygamy-no-excuse-for-illegitimate-children-zulu-experts-20150430
Such as a metric shitload of bastards, illegitimate children and orphans. But most significantly is the gender imbalance. Where women are reduced as trade commodities between families, and young poorcel male zulus with no wives are fricked out of luck.
This one-sided polyamory also makes RSA-libs seeth and shit themselves, as it obviously fosters an extremely sexist culture, which is supposed to be in contrarian to the ANC's objective of equality.
https://mg.co.za/article/2012-04-20-a-political-question-not-cultural-one
Basically many libtards are caught between feminism and respecting the cultural practices of indigenious black peeps - after all feminism would bestow western imperialism against those unfortunate women who basically have to act as Harem bitches and housekeepers for rich fat Zulu indoenas.
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Right anyways back to the R*pe-trial. I wen on this neurodivergent tangent about the extremities of Zulu cultural sexism to clearly depict what would follow for non-RSA dramatards. So that they might understand the nuclear-sneedstorm which would follow.
The wingcuckery of Pro-ANC factions, Zuma and Mbeki factions, the latent sexism of Zulu culture, all would contribute to a worthless dramatic trial.
The accuser of Zuma got a massive amount of backlash, and it was clear there were many powerful factions vying to ensure Zuma was not convicted.
ZUMA ON TRIAL:
This is gonna be a shitshow!
https://mg.co.za/article/2006-03-21-timeline-of-the-jacob-zuma-r*pe-trial
The chick who accused Zuma, Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo, had a pseudonym assigned to her, to protect her identity - she was known throughout the trial as Khwezi.
Her father, Judson Kuzwayo, was, like Zuma, a member of the ANC during the struggle against apartheid, and had spent a decade imprisoned alongside Zuma on Robben Island before his death in 1985. Zuma was accused of raping her at his home in Forest Town, Johannesburg on 2 November 2005.
When she appeared in the witness box to give her testimony, Zuma openly called her a b-word and asked how much she was being paid. The judge had to reinstil order.
This is something even I didn't know: ""A group of mostly female Zuma supporters burns A4-size pictures of the complainant with her first name and surname, while shouting: "Burn this b-word." The Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust later condemns the action.""
She stated that she didn't deny Zuma's unwanted advances on her, as she had been terrified of his political power.
Every single day of this case was an unholy shitshow:
MARCH 13: ""Psychologist Merle Friedman testifies that it is normal for a person to freeze during r*pe and that most women who are r*ped do this. It is also normal to take long to report a r*pe, and to start using the word "r*pe" to discuss the event. Kemp questions whether her diagnosis of dissociative disorder associated with multiple traumas was not really "selective memory".""
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It goes on like this with great r-sluration and the slimiest lawyer slander tactics invented by man. You guys can literally just skim the timeline, it's hilarious and fricked up.
But the real megaton bomb which propelled this case into national attention was Zuma and his remarks about AIDS.
Namely that he had not been able to obtain the HIV-virus from his s*x with Khwezi, as he had taken a shower after s*x to clean himself.
"De Beer casts doubt on Zuma's HIV status, saying the result showing he was HIV-negative was not submitted as part of court documents." Because the prosecution had not submitted a HIV test to the court documents, they couldn't include it later to prove Zuma had contracted AIDS to further prove his r*pe. Trust me, we'll revisit this!!!
The rest of the timeline becomes a muddled mess with counter arguments and shitflinging,
THE KHANGA:
"During the 2006 r*pe trial in which President Jacob Zuma was acquitted of r*pe, there wasn't much in common in Zuma or Khwezi's testimonies. But one thing that was consistent is that Khwezi wore a kanga at the time. The garment β one that exists with respect and dignity in African womanhood and politics β became as popular as the showerhead at the time."
The khanga is like a giant body buff used by women like a headscarf of as an attire to help them carry additional stuff, including their babies.
"In many families around the continent, a kanga will be the first material a baby is wrapped in, and in East Africa, the Swahili proverbs on the boarder of the material have been seen as a language women use to communicate both among themselves and with people around them."
The khanga has a lot of cultural meaning in south africa, and has been used symbolically for a lot of stuff, including indicating that a woman was an available bachelorette.
"But during the r*pe trial in 2006, Zuma testified that Khwezi was wearing a kanga and he interpreted her dress as an invitation. From that remark, Zuma's supporters appeared throughout the trial, undermining Khwezi's accusation because of the way she was dressed."
When Zuma on the witness stand made on of his main arguments that her frozen non-resistance and wearing the khanga made him interpret her actions as acquiescence for his sexual advances, this commentary exploded in the South African black world, especially for women. This chauvinistic view that men can just frick women who wear this multi-use everpresent female garment, was the african equivalent of saying: hey she was asking for it!
======(from Mail&Guardian article(
β'But she was wearing a kanga, m'lud' has been the scandalised refrain throughout the trial,β wrote journ*list Nicole Johnston at the time for the Mail & Guardian.
Though Zuma was found not guilty, on the day of the judgment anti-r*pe activists protested outside the court and built a wall of shame made from posters and a khanga.
βThis kanga is not an invitation [to s*x],β was written on one poster.
Members of People Against Women Abuse (Powa), an NGO which prioritises gender-based violence, wore kangas in protest to, as Johnston observed, βre-appropriate their right to wear the kanga β anywhere, any timeβ.
But during 2006, the word βkanga' emerged in headlines just as showerheads did when there was mention of Zuma or the case .
In his judgment, Judge Willem Van Der Merwe ordered that Khwezi's kanga be returned to her β she had asked for it to be given back as she gave evidence.
When she was granted asylum in the Netherlands after the trial, she appeared at an exhibition where she recited her poem. Even after the trial, the garment was one of the last things she publicly spoke on in relation to the case.
Many women still wear kangas wherever they go, but the silent protest on Saturday brought the fabric, and its importance back into public consciousness as a reminder that even a traditional cloth is made to be complicit in the country's r*pe culture.
=======(end article)
TRIAL CONCLUSION:
The trial began on 6 March 2006 in the Johannesburg High Court. Judge Bernard Ngoepe, initially assigned to the case, recused himself due to his involvement in the ongoing (but separate) corruption charges against Zuma; Judge Willem van der Merwe presided instead. Zuma pleaded not guilty to the charge, claiming that he and Khwezi had had consensual s*x.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/dramatic-scenes-as-zuma-is-cleared-of-r*pe-1.1000443
To a shocked nation: On 8 May 2006, the court acquitted Zuma of r*pe. "Hundreds of supporters of the politician broke through police lines surrounding Johannesburg high court to celebrate the judgment, which was broadcast to a spellbound nation."
Although Judge van der Merwe censured Zuma for having had unprotected s*x with Khwezi. Part of the judgement read:
"It is totally unacceptable that a man should have unprotected s*x with any person other than his regular partner and definitely not with a person who to his knowledge is HIV positive. I do not even want to comment on the effect of a shower after having had unprotected s*x... [However] it is clear that the probabilities show that the complainant's evidence cannot be accepted. She is a strong person well in control of herself knowing what she wants. She is definitely not that meek, mild and submissive person she was made out to be. On the evidence as a whole it is clear that the accused's version should be believed and accepted. The accused's evidence was also clear and convincing in spite of media efforts to discredit him."
POLITICAL AFTERMATH:
The r*pe-trial shitshow would reign on the media cycle for like the next 6 months. National drama and sneed abounded. Notable r-slurations followed:
Although there were reports that Zuma's legal difficulties were causing strife within the ANC, he retained a large public support base. Especially his zulu base back in KwaZulu-Natal province.
https://mg.co.za/article/2006-04-21-sacp-divided-on-zuma
"The South African Communist Party (SACP) is battling to contain serious internal divisions over the partyΓ’β¬β’s stance on African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma, with rumours circulating that next yearΓ’β¬β’s SACP congress will be used to weed out the anti-Zuma lobby in the party." The left wing portions (Zuma) with at war with the neoliberal factions (Mbeki) in the ANC.
In 2007, the 52nd National Conference of the African National Congress would lead another nuclear shitstorm in which Zuma would defeat Mbeki as leader of the ANC.
All of this IN SPITE of his r*pe-trial and recent corruption charges against Shaik.
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What was most dramastorm and r-sluration causing was the infighting between the black women of South Africa. Especially zulu women. The ANC Women's League defended Zuma. During the trial, his supporters β sometimes in their thousands β gathered outside the courthouse, sometimes clashing with smaller groups of anti-r*pe protesters.
https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4707464.stm
https://web.archive.org/web/20060314050830/http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx
"Zuma supporters were seen carrying posters questioning Khwezi's integrity (with such slogans as "How much did they pay you, nondindwa [b-word]?" and "Burn this b-word"), burning photos of her, and on one occasion throwing stones at a woman that they mistook for her."
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On 3 July 2007, Khwezi was granted asylum in the Netherlands, having faced intimidation in South Africa during and after the trial. She died in 2016.
POLITICAL CARTOONS MOCK ZUMA:
Due to his arrogance and baffoonery, Zuma would become a popular target for politcal satirists and cartoon artists.
The popular South African comic strip Madam & Eve would mock him and well known political cartoonist Zapiro repeatedly lampooned Zuma for his testimony, and Zuma now always appears under a showerhead in Zapiro cartoons.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2011-07-22-the-sas-most-famous-showerhead-sparks-more-debate
https://ewn.co.za/2011/07/21/Call-for-Zumas-shower-head-to-be-scrapped
This REALLLLLLLY pissed of the ANC-wingcucks
"There was another call on Thursday for cartoonist Zapiro to stop portraying Jacob Zuma with a shower head. The Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities said Zuma should not have to always be confronted with his past. Zapiro has drawn the shower head as a reference to Zuma's comments during his r*pe trial in 2006 that he showered after having s*x with an HIV positive woman."
https://mg.co.za/article/2011-07-20-take-the-shower-back-no-zapiro-will-not-yield
"Satirical cartoonist Zapiro is unfazed by criticism from the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, for continuing to put a shower head above Jacob Zuma in his depictions of the president."
"However, Zuma was still taking legal action against Shapiro over the cartoon. The cartoonist had received a summons recently indicating he was being sued for R5-million. He had initially received a letter of demand in 2008 for R7-million."
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