Zuma wins S. Africa party leadership

POLOKWANE, South Africa – Populist Jacob Zuma overcame allegations of corruption and an acquittal on a rape charge to win the leadership of South Africa’s governing party Tuesday, putting the candidate of the country’s poor and angry townships on course to become the next president.

The vote represents a dramatic shift for South Africa, where Nelson Mandela and his successor, the elegant and intellectual President Thabo Mbeki, presided over an era of remarkable political and economic stability after the end of apartheid in 1994.

But many among the rank-and-file of the African National Congress didn’t think Mbeki did enough to improve the lives of the poor masses. And it was those rank-and-file among the ANC who voted in Zuma and his associates to the top positions in the party. It is far from clear, however, what changes Zuma would implement.

And many South Africans will be troubled by the election of a man facing potential criminal charges – he still faces corruption and tax-evasion charges – and who has expressed highly controversial attitudes about sex, AIDS and homosexuals: a sharp departure from the reconciliation of the Mandela era and the economic stability and growth under Mbeki.

The vote puts Mbeki’s future in question as he limps on as president, lacking a real ANC mandate. He is due to step down as the country’s president in 2009, but one daily, Business Day, headlined its conference coverage “Can Mbeki survive in 2008?”