PresidentPr Zuma: a rocky era for the new SA

President Jacob Zuma delivered his State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Thursday evening as frustration grows over his leadership.

Zuma’s critics accuse him of allowing a small black elite to enrich itself, failing to help the poor, and overseeing national economic decline.

Here are some key dates of his presidency:

April 2009: The ANC wins elections and Zuma becomes president. Shortly before the election, all corruption charges are dropped against him.

July 2010: South Africa hosts a succesful Fifa World Cup, receiving widespread praise as the first African nation to hold the event.

December 2010: Zuma announces a new Aids policy and a national programme to distribute antiretroviral drugs. The move is hailed.

August 2012: Police shoot dead 34 striking miners in Marikana, North West, in the worst violence involving the security forces since the end of apartheid. The incident shocked South Africa.

July 2013: Former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema forms the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the first major split from the all-powerful ruling party.

December 2013: Zuma is booed in front of a global television audience and world dignitaries at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela in Soweto football stadium.

March 2014: South Africa’s top anti-corruption agency issues a damning report into public funds used to upgrade Zuma’s private rural homestead, saying he “benefited unduly” from work that cost more than R200 million.

May 2014: The ANC wins general elections, carrying Zuma into a second term in office. The party records its lowest share since non-racial elections began.

December 2015: Growing concern over South Africa’s economic woes is underlined when Zuma sacks two finance ministers within a few days, triggering a collapse in the rand. – AFP