Jacob Zuma

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Jacob Zuma in 2010.

Jacob Zuma (born 1942) is the president of South Africa. He was an important member of the African National Congress during the fight against apartheid. Unfortunately, his administration has been... sub-optimal.

[edit] HIV/AIDS denial

Zuma denies the link between AIDS and HIV. This is a serious problem in a country where more than 1 in 10 people are HIV positive. Zuma and the previous president, Thabo Mbeki, insisted that AIDS was caused by malnutrition and poverty, not HIV. This allowed the new government to pin the blame for the epidemic on years of neglect from the apartheid regime and argue that the crisis would be resolved as South Africa improved its racially-based economic inequality, rather than the government having to divert funds towards HIV prevention and information campaigns. In 2000, Zuma claimed that the people criticizing the AIDS "skeptics" were akin to the people who had criticized Galileo.[1]

In 2005, Zuma was charged in the rape of an HIV activist, but was later acquitted. But don't worry for his health, he took a shower afterwards to protect himself from HIV.[2]

Luckily, or not depending on how you look at it, the issue has become far too big to ignore and Zuma pretended to change his stance on HIV and AIDS.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. "In Debate on AIDS, South Africa's Leaders Defend Mavericks," New York Times, April 21, 2000
  2. "SA's Zuma 'showered to avoid HIV'", BBC, April 5 2006
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