Former president Jacob Zuma in dates
Key dates for South Africa's former president Jacob Zuma, who has been slapped with a 15-month jail term after snubbing anti-graft investigators and said on Wednesday he would hand himself in to start serving his sentence.
- April 12, 1942: Zuma is born in rural Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province. He grows up without formal schooling.
- 1963: A member of the armed wing of the ANC, he is convicted of trying to overthrow the apartheid government and serves 10 years in the Robben Island prison alongside Nelson Mandela.
READ: Zuma spends first night behind bars
- 1973: Freed, he sets up underground ANC networks and then works from Zambia as the group's chief of intelligence.
- 1990: After 15 years mostly spent in exile, he returns to South Africa when the ANC is unbanned. He is key in talks that lead to a national unity government after the first all-race elections, in 1994, won by the ANC.
- 1997: He becomes the ANC's vice president. Two years later he is elected deputy president of the country.
- 2006: He is cleared of rape charges but ridiculed for testifying he took a shower after consensual sex with his HIV-positive accuser.
- 2009: Two years after ousting Thabo Mbeki as ANC leader, he is elected president. He is re-elected in 2014.
- 2016: A top court finds he flouted the constitution by using public funds to upgrade his private residence. An anti-corruption watchdog meanwhile charges he allowed a wealthy Indian business family, the Guptas, undue influence over his government.
- 2017: Zuma fires his finance minister, unleashing open war in the ANC.
- August, 2017: He survives his fourth impeachment vote since 2015.
- December, 2017: He is replaced as ANC chief by his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, and comes under pressure to quit the presidency early, ahead of the next elections.
- February 14, 2018: Resigns from the presidency after the ANC threatens a no-confidence vote in parliament.
- May 2021: Trial begins in his graft case dating back more than two decades and involving French arms firm Thales.
- June 2021: Gets a 15-month jail term for contempt of court following his refusal to appear before anti-graft investigators. He files appeals to avoid a possible arrest.
