Jacob Zuma, who survived rape and corruption charges to become the president-in-waiting of South Africa, has harsh words for Kenya and Nigeria, where recent elections were marred by alleged fraud, violence and disputed results.
"What has happened in Kenya I think is absolutely not right," Zuma said on Saturday in an interview. "It does not help to advance the case for the African continent."
Of last year's Nigerian election, won by the governing party and condemned by observers as deeply flawed, he said: "It's not a good example if you've got the kind of infrastructure or method that allowed that kind of thing."
He also said he was hopeful for a fair election in Zimbabwe -- where on Friday President Robert Mugabe set national elections for March 29 despite opposition calls for more time to prepare -- and promised to continue South Africa's efforts to mediate between Mugabe and the opposition.
That is Zuma at Davos: a man trying to project stability and seriousness and dissolve concerns about his readiness to govern a country that may not have the most people in Africa -- that's Nigeria -- but is looked to by millions on the troubled continent for leadership.
It is that special role that magnifies the concerns about Zuma, who unseated South African President Thabo Mbeki at a party convention of their African National Congress (ANC) last month -- in the first time in 55 years that the party leadership was openly fought.
The victory virtually assured him of being the party's presidential candidate in elections scheduled in 2009 -- if he survives new corruption charges against him. The ANC is so dominant in South Africa that its candidate is seen as assured of the presidency.
Last week Zuma was one of the most sought-after figures at the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in this Swiss resort -- an engaging and enigmatic would-be president.
But can the mantle of the widely revered Nelson Mandela, the first post-apartheid president, really pass to a man who only a few months ago was acquitted of rape charges?
After all, the moral voice of the nation, former Cape Town Arch-bishop Desmond Tutu, urged ANC members not to elect Zuma, pleading that they "not choose someone of whom most of us would be ashamed."
Zuma brushed off the insult.
"People like Bishop Tutu, a few others, might have their views. I respect him," he said in the interview. "My understanding is that clergy people are there to pray [and not] take political stances."
The first corruption charges against Zuma were thrown out of court in 2005.
Soon after, he went on trial for rape, accused by the HIV-positive daughter of a family friend. Zuma argued the encounter was consensual and was acquitted, but not before he made damaging comments that led many to question his judgment -- including that he believed taking a shower after the sex would reduce the risk of AIDS.
Zuma linked his rise to the displeasure of many South Africans with Mbeki's decision to fire him as the nation's deputy president in 2005.
"Since that time people have felt that some of the things that happened to me were certainly unfair ... that there was [an] interfering with Zuma's human rights," he said.
Zuma said he still meets with Mbeki and brushed off concerns about dysfunction in South Africa's governing party.
"I think what people should actually be saying is, here is an organization in the African continent that shows the deep roots of democracy in the sense that we have never seen before. They are able to say even to a sitting president: `We don't prefer you now, we prefer this one,'" he said.
"Once a democratic decision is taken I think you've got to respect it ... I think that's what we need in Africa," he said.
Zuma insisted the ANC must decide if he will be the candidate -- widely viewed as a formality -- but agreed to discuss how he would rule, saying if elected he plans to change little but stress education and more equality.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
Cook Islands officials yesterday said they had discussed seabed minerals research with China as the small Pacific island mulls deep-sea mining of its waters. The self-governing country of 17,000 people — a former colony of close partner New Zealand — has licensed three companies to explore the seabed for nodules rich in metals such as nickel and cobalt, which are used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Despite issuing the five-year exploration licenses in 2022, the Cook Islands government said it would not decide whether to harvest the potato-sized nodules until it has assessed environmental and other impacts. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
FIREWALLS: ‘Democracy doesn’t mean that the loud minority is automatically right,’ the German defense minister said following the US vice president’s remarks US Vice President JD Vance met the leader of a German far-right party during a visit to Munich, Germany, on Friday, nine days before a German election. During his visit he lectured European leaders about the state of democracy and said there is no place for “firewalls.” Vance met with Alice Weidel, the coleader and candidate for chancellor of the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, his office said. Mainstream German parties say they would not work with the party. That stance is often referred to as a “firewall.” Polls put AfD in second place going into the