Zuma began engaging in politics at an early age, and joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1959. He became an active member of Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1962, following the South African government’s banning of the ANC the previous year.

Zuma was also a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP); he joined in 1963, briefly serving on the party’s Politburo, and left the party in 1990.

Zuma first left South Africa in 1975, and met Thabo Mbeki in Swaziland, and proceeded to Mozambique, where he dealt with the arrival of thousands of exiles in the wake of the Soweto uprising. He became a member of the ANC National Executive Committee in 1977. 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. After signing the Accord, he was appointed as Chief Representative of the ANC.

In December 1986, the South African government requested Mozambican authorities expel six senior members of the ANC, including Zuma. As a result of the pressure applied by the apartheid government on Mozambique, he was forced to leave Mozambique in January 1987. 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 served on the ANC’s political and military council when it was formed in the mid-1980s, and was elected to the politburo of the SACP in April 1989.

Following the end of the ban on the ANC in February 1990, Zuma was one of the first ANC leaders to return to South Africa to begin the process of negotiations.

In 1990, he was elected Chairperson of the ANC for the Southern Natal region, and took a leading role in fighting political violence in the region between members of the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). He was elected the Deputy Secretary General of the ANC the next year, and in January 1994, he was nominated as the ANC candidate for the Premiership of KwaZulu Natal.

During this time, he also worked in Kampala, Uganda, as facilitator of the Burundi peace process, along with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Museveni chairs the Great Lakes Regional Initiative, a grouping of regional presidents overseeing the peace process in Burundi, where several armed Hutu groups took up arms in 1993, against a government and army dominated by the Tutsi minority that they claimed had assassinated the first president elected from the Hutu majority.

After the 1994 general election, with the ANC becoming a governing party but having lost KwaZulu-Natal province to the IFP, he was appointed as Member of the Executive Committee (MEC) of Economic Affairs and Tourism for the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government.

In December 1994, he was elected National Chairperson of the ANC and chairperson of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, and was re-elected to the latter position in 1996. He was elected Deputy President of the ANC at the National Conference held at Mafikeng in December 1997, and he was subsequently appointed executive Deputy President of South Africa in June 1999.

Zuma paid 10 cattle as lobola for Swazi Princess Sebentile Dlamini in 2003.

In 2004, Zuma became a key figure mentioned in the Schabir Shaik trial. Shaik, a Durban businessman and his 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. In the trial, Shaik was shown to have solicited a bribe of R500,000 per annum for Zuma in return for Zuma’s support for the defence contractor Thomson-CSF, documented in the infamous “encrypted fax”. On 2 June 2005, Shaik was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

After twelve days of intense media speculation about his future, President Thabo Mbeki relieved Zuma of his duties as deputy president on 14 June 2005. 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.” Zuma then resigned as a member of parliament.

Zuma’s cause rallied large crowds of supporters at each of his corruption-related court appearances in 2005. At one court date, Zuma supporters burned T-shirts with Mbeki’s picture on them, which earned the condemnation of the ANC; Zuma and his allies urged a return to party discipline for subsequent gatherings. At the next court date in November, Zuma supporters numbering in the thousands gathered to support him; he addressed the Durban crowd in Zulu, urging party unity and singing the apartheid-era struggle song Lethu Mshini Wami with lyrics that translate literally as “bring me my machine” but understood to refer to a machine gun. At an October tour for the ANC Youth League elsewhere in the country, Zuma also earned the cheers of large crowds. While his political strength was at least partly based on his relationships within intra-party politics, one analyst argued that his supporters’ loyalty could be explained as rooted in a Zulu approach to loyalty and mutual aid.

Because of his support among elements of the party, Zuma remained a powerful political figure, retaining a high position in the ANC even after his dismissal as the country’s deputy president. A panel of political analysts convened in November 2005 agreed that if he was to be found innocent of the corruption charges brought against him, it would be hard for any other potential ANC candidate to beat Zuma in the race for the country’s presidency in 2009. However, these analysts also questioned whether Zuma was indeed a left-wing candidate of the sort that many of his supporters seem to seek, and noted that the global and national economic constraints that have shaped Mbeki’s presidency would be no different in the next presidential term.

In December 2005, Zuma was charged with raping a 31-year-old woman at his home in Forest Town, Gauteng. The alleged victim was from a prominent ANC family, the daughter of a deceased struggle comrade of Zuma, and also an AIDS activist who was known to be HIV-positive. Zuma denied the charges and claimed that the sex was consensual.

On 14 June 2005, President Thabo Mbeki removed Zuma from his post as Deputy President due to allegations of corruption and fraud related to the $5-billion weapons acquisition deal by the South African government in 1999. Zuma’s successor as Deputy President of South Africa was Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the wife of Bulelani Ngcuka. Mlambo-Ngcuka had been Minister of Minerals and Energy since 1999. While her appointment was widely welcomed by the business community, she was booed publicly at many ANC rallies by Zuma supporters between the time corruption charges had been filed but before rape charges were made, with the first booing taking place in Utrecht.

On 8 May 2006, the court acquitted Zuma of rape, finding that the sexual act in question was consensual, but also censuring Zuma for having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman who was not his partner.

As a backlash to the frenzied media following his rape trial, Zuma filed a series of defamation lawsuits on 30 June 2006 against various South African media outlets for publishing content that allegedly besmirched his public profile, in the form of cartoons, commentary, photos and parody pieces. The media outlets that came under fire were The Star for R20 million, Rapport for R10 million, Highveld Stereo for R6 million, The Citizen for R5 million, Sunday Sun for R5 million, Sunday Independent for R5 million, and Sunday World for R5 million.

Zuma’s stance on Zimbabwe was mixed. In a 2006 interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, he expressed more sympathetic sentiments towards Mugabe, saying that “Europeans often ignore the fact that Mugabe is very popular among Africans. In their eyes, he has given blacks their country back after centuries of colonialism.” He continued: “The people love him, so how can we condemn him? Many in Africa believe that there is a racist aspect to European and American criticism of Mugabe. Millions of blacks died in Angola, the Republic of Congo and Rwanda. A few whites lost their lives in Zimbabwe, unfortunately, and already the West is bent out of shape.”

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

On 28 December 2007, the Scorpions served Zuma an indictment to stand trial in the High Court on various counts of racketeering, money laundering, corruption and fraud. A conviction and sentence to a term of imprisonment of more than one year would have rendered Zuma ineligible for election to the South African Parliament, and consequently he would not have been eligible to serve as President of South Africa.

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

Zuma appeared in court on 4 August 2008. On 12 September 2008, Pietermaritzburg Judge Chris Nicholson held that Zuma’s corruption charges were unlawful on procedural grounds in that the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) did 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. Nicholson also added, however that he believed political interference played a significant role in the decision to recharge Zuma, although he did not say this was the reason why he held that the charges brought against Zuma were unlawful, though it was implied. Nicholson also stressed that his ruling did not relate to Zuma’s guilt or innocence, but was merely on a procedural point. Various media reports had incorrectly reported that the charges against Zuma had been dismissed. This was not the case. It remained competent for the NDPP to recharge Zuma, however, only once he had been given an opportunity to make representations to the NDPP in respect of the NDPP’s decision to do so. In paragraph 47 of the Judgment, Judge Nicholson wrote:

Whilst the legal challenges continued, a survey showed that, as at June 2009, more than half of South Africans believed President Jacob Zuma was doing a good job. The poll, conducted by TNS Research Studies in the last half of June 2009, revealed that Zuma’s approval ratings had steadily improved. Around 57% of the people polled said they thought Zuma was a capable leader – this was up 3% from April 2009 when the president was inaugurated. In November 2008, just months after Mbeki was recalled and when Zuma was facing graft charges, only 36% of South Africans were positive about him.

In September 2008, the breakdown in the relationship between the ruling ANC and its presidential appointee, Thabo Mbeki, reached a tipping point, with the ANC NEC’s decision to recall Mbeki. Mbeki elected not to challenge this decision and resigned as President of South Africa. The ANC announced that the party’s deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe, would become president until 2009 general elections, after which it was intended that Zuma would become president. Zuma declared that he would prefer to only serve one term as president.

Following the disputed elections in Zimbabwe on 29 March 2008, he became critical of the election process in Zimbabwe referring to delays in the outcome as “suspicious”. In a press conference on 24 June, he asserted: “We cannot agree with ZANU-PF. We cannot agree with them on values. We fought for the right of people to vote, we fought for democracy.” At an ANC dinner in July, he rebuked Mugabe for refusing to step down.

The judgement for the appeal was handed down on 12 January 2009 at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. Deputy Judge Louis Harms had to rule on two aspects of the appeal. The first aspect was whether or not Zuma had the right to be invited to make representations to the NPA before they decided to reinstate charges of bribery and corruption against him. The second aspect was whether Judge Nicholson was correct in implying political meddling by the then President Thabo Mbeki with regards to the NPA’s decision to charge Zuma.

On 6 April 2009, the NPA dropped all charges against Zuma, as well as co-accused French arms company Thint, in light of new revelations about serious flaws in the prosecution.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) subsequently filed for a judicial review of the NPA’s decision, with party leader Helen Zille stating that Mpshe had “not taken a decision based in law, but [instead had] buckled to political pressure”. The case was set to be heard on 9 June 2009.

On Friday, 29 April 2016, the High Court in Pretoria has said the decision taken by former NPA head Mokotedi Mpshe to drop corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma in 2009 was irrational. Judge Aubrey Ledwaba found three contradictions in Mr Mpshe’s affidavits explaining his decision to withdraw the charges against President Zuma:

In terms of party tradition, as the deputy president of the ANC, Zuma was already in line to succeed Mbeki. Mbeki however sought a third term as ANC president, though the South African Constitution would not have allowed him a third term as President of South Africa. The party structures held their nominations conferences in October and November 2007, where Zuma appeared favourite for the post of ANC President, and, by implication, the President of South Africa in 2009. With then-incumbent ANC- and South African President Thabo Mbeki as his opposition, Zuma was elected President of the ANC on 18 December 2007 with 2,329 votes, beating Mbeki’s 1,505 votes.

The ANC won the national election on 6 May 2009 and Zuma was sworn in as President of South Africa on 9 May 2009.

In March 2009, Schabir Shaik was released from prison just 28 months into his fifteen-year sentence. He had been granted medical parole, a leniency meant only for the terminally ill, despite the opinion of his doctors that he was fighting fit and free for hospital discharge. Media speculation had it that Zuma may have played a role in this eventuality, but the ANC President’s spokesman firmly denied it. Only days before, however, he had publicly stated that, as President of South Africa, he would personally ensure Shaik’s release.

On 6 August 2009, Zuma nominated Sandile Ngcobo as Chief Justice of South Africa, drawing criticism from four opposition groups. On 1 October 2009, the appointment was confirmed. The Democratic Alliance, the Congress of the People, the Inkatha Freedom Party and the Independent Democrats accused Zuma of failing to consult properly ahead of his nomination of Ngcobo. The opposition urged Zuma to restart the process from scratch saying they would prefer current Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke for the post.

In March, journalist Tshepo Lesole was forced to delete pictures of Zuma’s convoy from his camera by police, and two photographers were detained by police when photographing Zuma’s Johannesburg home. Sky News reporter Emma Hurd claimed she had been pushed, manhandled and “groped” by Zuma’s bodyguards in 2009.

In 2010, Zuma’s bodyguards were implicated in multiple incidents involving members of the public and journalists.

In January 2010, The Sunday Times reported that Sonono Khoza, the daughter of Irvin Khoza, gave birth to Zuma’s 20th child on 8 October 2009, a daughter called Thandekile Matina Zuma. Zuma confirmed that he had paid inhlawulo, acknowledging paternity. He protested the publishing of the child’s name, saying it was illegal exploitation of the child. He denied that the incident had relevance to the government’s AIDS programme (which promotes marital fidelity as a mechanism for preventing the disease), and appealed for privacy. On 6 February, Zuma said he “deeply regretted the pain that he caused to his family, the ANC, the alliance and South Africans in general.” The office of the presidency’s comment was that it was a private matter, and the ANC defended Zuma, saying it saw no links between its policies on HIV/AIDS and Mr Zuma’s personal life. ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema said “We are Africans and sitting here all of us, Zuma is our father so we are not qualified to talk about that”. Malema said the ANCYL would emphasise its HIV programme and “one boyfriend, one girlfriend” stance in an awareness campaign across the country. ANC Women’s League deputy president Nosipho Dorothy Ntwanambi said: “it is not right to have an extramarital affair if you have committed to yourself to a marriage. But under the Customary Marriages Act, if the first wife agrees, and if all these issues are discussed with her, we can’t do anything.” On 5 February, the ANC acknowledged the widespread disapproval by saying that the experience had “taught us many valuable lessons”, and they had listened to the people. COSATU, an ANC alliance partner, passed no judgment but hoped that it will be “a matter on Zuma’s conscience” Vavi reiterated Zuma’s appeal then that he be accorded his “right to privacy” and the child protected from undue publicity.

Zuma was re-elected as ANC leader at the ANC conference in Manguang on 18 December 2012, defeating challenger and then Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe by a large majority.

In January 2012, Zuma gave a speech at the ANC Centennial 2012 celebrations in Bloemfontein and, afterwards, sang the controversial song “Dubul’ ibhunu” (“Shoot the Boer”).

In 2012, Zuma was featured in a satirical painting by Cape Town-based artist Brett Murray, who depicted him in his painting The Spear, in a pose similar to Lenin, but with his genitals exposed. The ANC responded by threatening court action against the gallery showing the painting, and further demanding that the image should be removed from online sources. The subsequent aggressive sharing of the image through social networks can be considered a form of the Streisand effect. On 22 May 2012, the painting was vandalised while it was hanging in an art gallery in Johannesburg. The face and genitals of Zuma were painted over.

Jacob Zuma is a polygamist who has been married six times. In 2012 The Daily Telegraph estimated Zuma to have 20 children, whereas The Guardian in 2014 stated he had 21.

In June 2012, activists, including some from the ANC itself, complained about the amount the state paid to support Zuma’s wives, especially in the context of the country’s widespread poverty. In 2009–10 Zuma received a budget of £1.2m for “spousal support”, almost twice the amount paid during the terms in office of Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe, leading to suggestions that only Zuma’s first wife should receive state support.

Zuma officially announced the death of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first democratically elected president, in a press conference on 5 December 2013. Zuma was booed and heckled by the crowd at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela. Al Jazeera reported that “for many South Africans, Zuma represents some of the nation’s least appealing qualities. They consider their deeply flawed president and faltering government and mutter dark thoughts about a failing state and a banana republic.”

After Zuma became president, his private homestead at Nkandla in rural KwaZulu-Natal was substantially upgraded by the state. In November 2013 opposition parties accused Zuma of having used taxpayer funds not only for security improvements, but also private additions and improvements to his home. Zuma answered in parliament that he was unaware of the scale of the work, but agreed to two investigations, one to probe its rising costs, and another to determine any breaches of parliamentary spending rules. The Public Protector’s report “Secure in Comfort” found that Zuma and his family had benefited improperly from the upgrades, that a swimming pool (claimed to be a “fire pool”), amphitheatre, cattle kraal and chicken run were not security features, and that Zuma had violated the executive ethics code and had not asked “questions regarding the scale, cost and affordability of the Nkandla project.” After rival reports by the police’s Special Investigative Unit and a parliamentary ad hoc committee attempted to exonerate Zuma, opposition parties went to the Constitutional Court to establish whether the Public Protector’s report was binding. Shortly before the Constitutional Court hearing in February 2016, Zuma’s attorneys recognised that the Public Protector’s findings were binding and said that Zuma was ready to pay back part of the cost of the upgrade. On 31 March 2016, the Constitutional Court delivered a unanimous judgement in Economic Freedom Fighters v Speaker of the National Assembly and Others stating that the Public Protector’s report was binding and that Zuma and the National Assembly had failed to uphold the country’s constitution. The court ordered National Treasury to determine the amount that Zuma must pay back and ordered Zuma to do so within 45 days of the court’s approval of the National Treasury report.

On 18 January 2014, it was reported that Zuma would be the sole candidate for the ANC in the upcoming national election. It was reported that, in spite of speculation to the contrary, because of the controversies surrounding him, the ANC was “united behind Zuma” and would not field another candidate for the presidency in the upcoming national election. ANC Deputy Secretary General Jesse Duarte stated “The policy is that the president of the ANC is always the candidate for the election. We don’t have another candidate and there will be no other candidate. Let us be clear.”

On 26 January 2014, it was reported that at least four of the 11 ANC regional leaders in KwaZulu-Natal had confirmed the existence of a “resolution” taken to approach Zuma to ask him not to run for a second term as the country’s president. The resolution had reportedly gained momentum in November 2013 when the ANC was preparing for the national list conference, however, it “lost traction” after the death of Nelson Mandela.

On 21 May 2014, following the 2014 general elections, in which the ANC retained their majority, Zuma was elected for a second term as president by the National Assembly.

Zuma congratulated Bashar al-Assad on winning the 2014 Syrian presidential election.

In 2015, Zuma stated that the exodus from Libya had been caused by NATO military intervention, approved by Barack Obama and David Cameron, in the civil war in Libya in 2011.

On 9 December 2015, President Jacob Zuma issued a statement replacing Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene with the little-known Des van Rooyen. It was widely suspected that Nene was replaced for reasons all related to him vetoing suspect and/or controversial uses of public funds including the vetoing of South African Airways (SAA) chairperson Dudu Myeni’s attempt to purchase 5 Airbus A330s through an unnamed third party, not approving a proposed SAA direct flight route between Sudan and South Africa, Nene’s resistance to approving funding for a nuclear deal with Russia, not approving the purchase of a new R4 billion Boeing 787 presidential plane, and the downgrading of South Africa’s credit rating to just above ‘junk’ status by international rating agencies.

From 2015, Jacob Zuma was understood to favour his ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, to succeed him both as President of the African National Congress and as President of South Africa, in order to retain his control of the ANC and the state through her, and to avoid prosecution for still pending criminal charges. In December 2017, Dlamini-Zuma was defeated by Cyril Ramaphosa in the election for the ANC Presidency at the ANC Conference at Nasrec, Johannesburg.

But the ANC continued to support Zuma. The ANC Women’s League had released a statement hours after the judgment saying its faith in Zuma “remains unshaken”. Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe, speaking on behalf of the so-called Top Six, said he “welcomed” Zuma’s apologetic statement but that calls for his impeachment were “over-exaggerated”. Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu and Deputy Minister of Justice John Jeffery took the view that, although Zuma had breached the Constitution, the breach was not “serious”. The impeachment bid by opposition MPs on 5 April 2016 failed by over 120 votes. Some were surprised that even Zuma’s opponents within the ANC like Cyril Ramaphosa and Pravin Gordhan had voted against the motion. The Congress of the People, an opposition party, said it would boycott parliamentary proceedings in light of the National Assembly’s failure to implement the Court’s judgment.

Nevertheless, many analysts said the judgment might prove a fatal blow to Zuma, although factional battles within the ANC would be the ultimate decider. One suggested that powerful ANC members had lost faith in Zuma and might move to oust him at a more opportune moment. The South African Communist Party, part of Zuma’s own Tripartite Alliance, had been skeptical about the adequacy of his response to the judgment. Some ANC members booed Zuma at his next subsequent appearance. And several prominent members of civil society and former ANC insiders, including Ahmed Kathrada, Ronnie Kasrils, Trevor Manuel, Cheryl Carolus, and retired Constitutional Court judge Zak Yacoob, called for Zuma’s resignation, prompting a backlash from certain Zuma allies. The South African Council of Churches did the same, saying Zuma had “lost all moral authority”. The Gauteng ANC, led by noted Zuma critic Paul Mashatile, formally resolved that Zuma must resign; doubts were raised about Zuma’s leadership even within his traditional strongholds like the ANC’s Limpopo branches; and an internal ANC memorandum sent by party veterans to the Top Six allegedly demanded Zuma’s recall and compared him to detested apartheid-era President P. W. Botha. Finally, members of the Gupta family, thought to be Zuma’s long-standing allies and crucial financial backers, resigned from their major holding company and fled South Africa for Dubai in the week after the judgment – leaving Zuma, in the opinion of some analysts, extremely vulnerable. In the wake of these developments, Malema said it was now time to “crush the head of the snake”. On 12 April 2016, Max du Preez said the key question, “now that the balance of power has turned irrevocably against Zuma”, was how to ensure he makes a managed – and non-violent – exit.

In the early hours of 31 March 2017, the Presidency announced a major cabinet reshuffle in which Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas were dismissed, with Malusi Gigaba appointed as the new Finance Minister. The reshuffle affected 10 cabinet ministers, 5 of whom were dismissed, and 10 deputy ministers. The reshuffle was strongly criticised by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and other senior ANC and SACP leaders, and led to increased calls for Zuma to resign, including opposition calls for a motion of no confidence and impeachment. The SACP’s Second Deputy General Secretary Solly Afrika Mapaila indicated that ANC members of Parliament should themselves raise the prospect of a vote of no confidence in the President. Shortly after the removal of Pravin Gordhan, ratings agency Standard and Poor’s downgraded South Africa’s sovereign debt to BB+, commonly known as junk status. Partly in response to the dismissal of the Gordhan marches and protests were held on 7 April 2017 in South Africa’s major cities with a total of 60,000 protesters taking part. The largest of the protests occurred in Cape Town with an estimated 12,000 to 80,000 participants and Pretoria with an estimated 25,000 joining protests at the Union Buildings.

On 7 August 2017, Speaker Baleka Mbete announced that she would permit a motion of no confidence in Zuma’s government to proceed in the National Assembly via secret ballot. It was the eighth motion to be brought against Zuma in his presidency and the first to be held via secret ballot. After the vote was held the next day, the motion was defeated 198–177, with 25 abstentions. Around 20 ANC MPs voted in favor of the measure.

On 16 March 2018, it was confirmed by the director of public prosecutions that Zuma would face 18 charges of corruption, including more than 700 counts of fraud and money laundering. Zuma’s political allies within the ANC and Tripartite Alliance protested the prospect of a corruption trail. Some allies such as Julius Malema (then leader of the African National Congress Youth League) and Zwelinzima Vavi stated that they would “kill for Zuma” whilst other Zuma allies stated that the trail would threaten South Africa’s political stability. Judge Nicholson set aside the National Prosecuting Authority’ case against Zuma stating that he could not rule out political interference in it.

Following the end of Zuma’s term as ANC President, pressure grew for Zuma to be replaced as President of South Africa. The annual State of the Nation Address scheduled for 8 February was postponed indefinitely 2 days beforehand. After a week of discussions within ANC structures and between Ramaphosa and Zuma, the ANC announced on 13 February that Zuma had been requested to resign, but had refused, and that the ANC was therefore “recalling” him from the Presidency. Facing a motion of no confidence in Parliament scheduled for 15 February, Jacob Zuma announced his resignation with immediate effect in a late night address on 14 February. In July 2018, City Press reported that elements in the South African National Defence Force and State Security Agency had been unsuccessfully lobbied to launch a revolt to prevent Zuma’s removal as President of the country during this period.

In March 2018 National Prosecuting Authority director, Shaun Abrahams announced that he would be reinstating corruption charges against Zuma.

On 6 April 2018, Zuma made his first appearance in the Durban Magistrates Court for charges of corruption. On 8 June 2018, Zuma appeared before the KwaZulu Natal High Court. His court was postponed to 27 July 2018 after his legal team requested for more time to seek clarity on his legal fees funding.

The dismissal of Nene caused a public outcry and a strongly negative reaction by international markets causing the rand to lose 10% of its value and the withdrawal of an estimated R180 billion from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in the two days following the announcement. In addition to the public and opposition political parties the business community, COSATU and other trade unions, the Communist Party of South Africa, as well as many within the ruling ANC called for Zuma to reverse the decision. Four days after the announcement on 13 December a senior ANC delegation met with Zuma and told him to reinstate Nene or appoint former minister of finance Pravin Gordhan. A few hours later Zuma announced that van Rooyen would be replaced by the better known and trusted Pravin Gordhan. This event is thought to have increased the rift between Zuma and the rest of the ANC including Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, something that Ramaphosa denied. Ranjeni Munusamy of the Daily Maverick stated that this has exposed President Zuma as a “weak leader who acted recklessly without proper advice” indicating that the firing of Nene has greatly damaged Zuma’s political standing. In 2019 testimony into government corruption at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry the chief director of macro-economic policy at the National Treasury stated that Nene dismissal had an imitate and long term negative impact on the South African economy.

In July 2019, following Duduzane Zuma’s acquittal of culpable homicide, Zuma confirmed that he would testify in front of the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture or, simply, Zondo Commission. He started his testimony on 15 July 2019. On the first day of testimony, Zuma claimed that he was the “victim” and that the commission was part of an intelligence plot to oust him as president. His supporters protested outside the venue in Johannesburg. Zuma soon halted his testimony.

On 3 February 2020, a court issued an arrest warrant for former president Zuma on corruption charges.