If Jacob Zuma does win, though, I think we may have found what many people have wanted: a modern leader for the Zulu.
Truth. The unfortunate aspect of that is how every group in South Africa wants the
country's leader to be one of them.
If you don't mind my asking; do you oppose Zuma because of the corruption, due to political/ideological differences, or for another reason? Which candidate/party do you support?
My only sources of information on this election are the western press and what South African publications I have found online. I'd be very interested to hear anything you have to say on the subject.
I oppose him because of the corruption, yes. I also oppose him for political and ideological differences. (I am a white male, btw.) In South Africa, Affirmative Action and Black Economic Empowerment are huge movements that are protected by law and will be around for some time yet as the country attempts to raise the previously-disadvantaged population up from the poverty-ridden ******** it dumped them in during Apartheid. However, this makes it exceedingly difficult for healthy white males to get decent jobs as there are (for instance) quotas that all businesses must meet in terms of minimum employment of non-white people, disabled people, HIV positive people, women, etc. Under Thabo Mbeki, this was already problematic for people like me. Under Zuma, it will likely get a hell of a lot worse because at every turn, he promises whoever asks that he'll give them exactly what they want. What the black population wants is education and jobs. His supporters, who are numerous, are fiercely loyal to him (in spite of the corruption charges), and he is as loyal to them. Hence, I don't foresee the situation in South Africa getting any better for me if Zuma gets elected.
There are other aspects too, such as the ANC's Marxist influences. The group that split themselves from the ANC formed a new party called COPE (Congress of the People, in honour of the 1955 congress that wrote what would become the ANC's manifesto). I am far more in favour of COPE than of the ANC because the latter split from the former due to what they saw as deviation from what the ANC used to stand for - equal rights for
all (not just black people), and a country in union.
But the candidate I
really want to see getting the job is Helen Zille. She's the Mayor of Cape Town and the leader of the Democratic Alliance, the official opposition. She's a no-nonsense chick and she's done . .. .. .. .ing wonders for Cape Town. I'd love to see someone like that in power because she has none of the racial hatred for what was done to "her people" in the past; yet simultaneously she wants to uplift this country economically, and knows the way to do it is via education and job creation.
(The problem in South Africa, one might argue, is that vast stretches of our land is undeveloped [build some cottages, dammit!] and that makes it difficult to actually
find jobs for the majority. You should see the informal settlements surrounding the big cities.)
) following legal controversy surrounding the court cases against deputy president Jacob Zuma (separate charges of corruption and rape). So Mbeki resigned, and Zuma is not elected yet, and due to the criminal charges he is not allowed to take over as acting president. However the guy we currently have is a complete unknown. I don't even know his name. 
