Hope and Fear over Zuma presidency

This article was linked in Dennis' latest prayer update for Bridges of Hope.

Hope and Fear over Zuma Presidency
source: http://www.capeargus.co.za/

Cape Town (South Africa) - ANC President Jacob Zuma, who will within a few days be the country's president, is suing the Guardian newspaper and writer Simon Jenkins for a column saying South Africa should get used to Zuma's style of government - "morally contaminated, administratively chaotic and corrupt" and also - perhaps most legally damaging for Jenkins - calling him a "rapist" perhaps without realising he had been cleared by a court of the charges.

By Cape Argus (South Africa) | 04.20.2009

Perhaps Zuma's lawyers missed the article in the Daily Mail by Peter Hitchens asking British readers to imagine their feelings if their prime minister Gordon Brown "opened and closed his election rallies by bursting into a song called Bring Me My Machine Gun, swaying and jigging to the hypnotic chorus of this menacing ditty", also that Zuma was "alleged to be taking campaign money from Colonel Gaddafi; faced 783 counts of fraud, racketeering, tax evasion and corruption".

"If you can picture all this happening here, then you have an inkling of the horrible process South Africa is now going through. Except it is much, much worse."

Hitchens noted concerns that South Africa would "rapidly become a lawless kleptocracy when he comes to power, which he will do after a hopelessly one-sided and rather crooked election."

But not all the international commentary on Zuma becoming the next president is so gloomy, even in Britain, where criticism has generally been much harsher than in the US or elsewhere.

The Economist's latest editorial is balanced and hopeful, urging Zuma to "confound us all" and advising that "If Jacob Zuma avoids becoming a caricature of African leadership, he could change the whole continent for the better".

The journal lists Zuma's good points, calling him "undoubtedly a man of remarkable qualities," including the ability "in contrast to his dour predecessor, Thabo Mbeki [to] charm the birds out of the trees. Unlike the racially twitchy Mr Mbeki, he feels good in his skin, happy to acknowledge, even celebrate, his modest background".

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Pray for leadership, wisdom, compassion and humility for Jacob Zuma