Poll: Zuma should lead

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s former deputy president Jacob Zuma won the backing of a majority as the best choice to lead the country after emerging unscathed from rape and graft charges, in a poll conducted yesterday.

Fifty-seven per cent of the 8 137 people who responded to the poll conducted by the Sowetan, a black daily which claims a readership of 1,6 million, said they wanted Zuma to succeed President Thabo Mbeki who steps down in 2009. Forty-three per cent said Zuma, who was sacked by Mbeki in June last year after his financial adviser Schabir Shaik was sentenced to 15 years in jail for corruption, should not steer Africa’s largest economy.It was the first poll to be conducted after Zuma was cleared of raping a young HIV-positive woman and his reprieve in a corruption scandal following a judge’s decision to throw out the case.The Sowetan said the voting patterns differed with the overwhelming majority who responded by telephone – and identified by the paper as having lower incomes – solidly backing the veteran Zulu politician.But 56% who used the Internet to vote were against Zuma, the Sowetan said, adding that this “could be read to mean that Msholozi (Zuma’s clan name) is not very popular with the middle class.”Zuma won a second court victory last month when a court threw out corruption charges against the deputy leader of the ruling African National Congress over a 1999 arms deal.Four months earlier, he was cleared of raping an AIDS activist.The charismatic leader, who enjoys tremendous grassroots support, has maintained a Sphinx-like silence on whether he is in the race to succeed Mbeki and contest the party’s leadership which opens up next year.”There is no race, there is no battle, there is no campaign,” the 64-year-old politician said after the latest court ruling on the corruption charges appeared to put him back at the forefront in the presidential race.Nampa-AFPForty-three per cent said Zuma, who was sacked by Mbeki in June last year after his financial adviser Schabir Shaik was sentenced to 15 years in jail for corruption, should not steer Africa’s largest economy.It was the first poll to be conducted after Zuma was cleared of raping a young HIV-positive woman and his reprieve in a corruption scandal following a judge’s decision to throw out the case.The Sowetan said the voting patterns differed with the overwhelming majority who responded by telephone – and identified by the paper as having lower incomes – solidly backing the veteran Zulu politician.But 56% who used the Internet to vote were against Zuma, the Sowetan said, adding that this “could be read to mean that Msholozi (Zuma’s clan name) is not very popular with the middle class.”Zuma won a second court victory last month when a court threw out corruption charges against the deputy leader of the ruling African National Congress over a 1999 arms deal.Four months earlier, he was cleared of raping an AIDS activist.The charismatic leader, who enjoys tremendous grassroots support, has maintained a Sphinx-like silence on whether he is in the race to succeed Mbeki and contest the party’s leadership which opens up next year.”There is no race, there is no battle, there is no campaign,” the 64-year-old politician said after the latest court ruling on the corruption charges appeared to put him back at the forefront in the presidential race.Nampa-AFP