Zuma still popular despite graft scandals

JOHANNESBURG - Over the course of his scandal-tainted career, South Africa’s ex-president Jacob Zuma accumulated 16 fraud charges, faced court over alleged rape and built a fervent fan base that continues to rattle politics.

He now faces a police investigation after walking out last week on a panel probing rampant state corruption during his nineyear reign.

The former anti-apartheid resistance fighter is accused of overseeing mass looting of state assets.

After months of playing cat-and-mouse, it was expected he would be asked to take the witness stand.

Instead, Zuma and his lawyer did not return from a recess after the head of the judicial commission refused to recuse himself, as requested by Zuma.

On Monday, the commission announced it would “lay a criminal complaint with the South African police against Mr Zuma so that the police can investigate his conduct”.

Aged 78, Zuma is also facing trial for allegedly receiving bribes in a multi-billion rand arms deal in 1999 when he was deputy president.

Nearly three years ago, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party forced him to resign over mounting graft scandals.

Yet the former leader remains popular. Whenever he appears in public, small crowds of loyalists gather without fail.

He has also maintained a solid network of supporters within the ANC, which critics say benefitted from his alleged dodgy dealings.

“He retains a kind of charismatic hold,” said political researcher Richard Calland, author of the book “The Zuma Years”.

“A manipulator of people. That is one of his core techniques as a politician.”

Donning green-and-yellow ANC shirts with pro-Zuma slogans, supporters chanting apartheid liberation songs welcomed Zuma at the airport when he returned from a medical trip to Cuba in February.

They gathered again last month in the financial capital Johannesburg, protesting against a subpoena to appear before the anti-graft commission.

“I have never seen anyone vilified like him,” said Zuma’s close friend and ex-ANC spokesman Carl Niehaus.