Jacob Zuma

Jacob Zuma was elected to be Execute Deputy President of South Africa in 1999. But it was not easy for him to get this position. His father died at the end of World War 2. After his father death his mother took up employment as a domestic worker in Durban. He spent his childhood moving between Zululand and the suburbs of Durban and by the age 15 he took on odd jobs to supplement his mother’s income. Also he did not receive formal schooling. He learned to read and write properly in his late teens while serving as a young trade union activist. He became involved in politics at an early age and joined that African Notational congress in 1959. He became an active member of umkhonto we sizwe witch means (Spear of the nation) in 1962 following the banning of the ANC in 1960.
While on his way out of the country in 1963 he was arrested with a group of 45 people recruits near zeerust by the northern west province. Convicted of conspiring to overthrow the government, he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, which he served on Robben Island. While in prison he was given to the chance to get more of an education.
After his release Jacob Zuma helped mobilize internal resistance and was instrumental in the reestablishment of ANC underground structures in the then natal province thought out 1973-1975.
He left South Africa in 1975and for the next 12 years, based in Swaziland and then Mow-zum-beek dealing with thousands of young exiles who poured out south Africa in the wake of Soweto uprising.
HE lived in several African countries working for ANC, where he rose rapidly to become a member of the ANC National Executive committee in 1977. He also served as the Deputy Chief Representative of the Anc in Mow-zum-beek, post he occupied until the signing of the Nkomati Accord between the Mow-zum-bican and south African government in 1984. After the signing of the Accord, he was appointed as Chief Representative of the ANC and was one of the few who remained in Mow-zum-beek to carry out the work of the organization, crossing in and out of South Africa on a number of occasions.
Jacob was forced to leave Mow-zum-beek in January 1987 after considerable pressure on the Mowzumbican government. HE moved to the ANC Head of office in Lusaka Zambia where he was appointed Head of underground structures and shortly thereafter chief of intelligence department.
It’s a long way for a man to come considering his childhood and never having any formal education, having been in prison for 10 year. If he can overcome those odds than anybody should be able to become president.