Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (Msholozi)

Humiliatingly shunned by both the powerful business community and the forces of labour and the left President Jacob Zuma is on the defensive as never before...

The UK's largest public relations firm founded by Lord Timothy Bell a former election advisor to the late British Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Bell Pottinger has now cut its ties with the controversial Gupta family – which has a close business relationship with South African President Jacob Zuma and his family – after losing two major clients with ties to South Africa because of their concern about its contract with Oakbay Investments the Guptas' holding company (AC Vol 57 No 21 Stalwarts push for Zuma's exit)...

Meanwhile the rand had already taken a beating on foreign exchange markets after tens of thousands of demonstrators including supporters of the governing African National Congress (ANC) poured into the streets to protest against Gordhan being fired and demanding that President Jacob Zuma stand down...

Much of the raison d'être of the controversial 1 trillion rand (US$72 billion) nuclear deal with Russia rests on President Jacob Zuma's belief that he owes his life to President Vladimir Putin say sources close to the Zuma family...

Pro-democracy forces brought tens of thousands of protestors into South Africa's streets last week following President Jacob Zuma's ousting of Pravin Gordhan from the Finance Ministry and his replacement with Malusi Gigaba...

Foreign and domestic investors are worried by the plunge in the local currency the rand and the downgrading of South Africa's credit rating to 'junk' status that followed Gordhan's sacking (AC Vol 58 No 4 The state of Jacob Zuma's presidency)...

The controversial Malusi Gigaba the former Home Affairs Minister now elevated to the Finance Ministry has been proposed by influential sections of the African National Congress as a compromise candidate to succeed Jacob Zuma as ANC and state President...

It believes the older generation of ANC leaders is failing to connect with young people and is at a disadvantage facing youthful party leaders such as the Democratic Alliance's Mmusi Maimane and the Economic Freedom Fighters' Julius Malema a former ANCYL leader (AC Vol 58 No 4 The state of Jacob Zuma's presidency)...

The powerful KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) branch of the African National Congress the governing party's largest lifted Jacob Zuma into the ANC presidency at its 2007 and 2012 national conferences and has long been considered his safest haven...

This is an increasingly common refrain within the political class as evidence mounts that in emulation of neighbouring Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's survival strategy President Jacob Zuma has not been deflected from a policy of protecting widespread rent-seeking behind a populist smokescreen...

The South African Communist Party intends to withdraw its members from President Jacob Zuma's cabinet if he goes through with the sacking of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan party sources have told Africa Confidential...

Just as mounting political crises again threatened to overwhelm President Jacob Zuma he pulled out the land card to buy himself breathing space before the African National Congress's elective conference in nine months' time...

Zuma has long appeased traditional leaders as he sees their power as crucial to ensuring his own political survival and that of the ANC in 2019 (AC Vol 58 No 4 The state of Jacob Zuma's presidency)...