Nelson Mandela remains one of the world's most revered statesman, who led the struggle to replace the apartheid regime of South Africa with a multi-racial democracy. Despite many years in jail, he emerged to become the country's first black president and to play a leading role in the drive for peace in other spheres of conflict. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
Since stepping down as president in 1999, Mr Mandela has become South Africa's highest-profile ambassador, campaigning against HIV/Aids and securing his country's right to host the 2010 football World Cup.
Mr Mandela - diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2001 - has also been actively involved in peace negotiations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and other African countries.
In prison, you come face to face with time. There is nothing more terrifying
Nelson Mandela
He has also encouraged peace efforts in other areas of the world. Mr Mandela, 85, explained his decision to withdraw from public life, by a desire to spend more time with his family and friends and engage in "quiet reflection".
Raised by royalty
Mr Mandela was born in 1918 into the Madiba tribal clan - part of the Thembu people - in a small village in the eastern Cape of South Africa.
Born Rolihlahla Dalibhunga, Mr Mandela was given his English name, Nelson, by a teacher at his school. His father, a counsellor to the Thembu royal family, died when Nelson Mandela was nine, and he was placed in the care of the acting regent of the Thembu people, chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo.
Joined the ANC
He joined the African National Congress in 1943, first as an activist, then as the founder and president of the ANC Youth League.
LANDMARKS
1918 - Born in the Eastern Cape
1956 - Charged with high treason, but charges dropped
1964 - Charged again, sentenced to life
1990 - Freed from prison
1993 - Wins Nobel Peace Prize
1994 - Elected first black president
1999 - Steps down as leader
Eventually, after years in prison, he also served as its president.
He married his first wife, Evelyn Mase, in 1944. They were divorced in 1957 after having three children.
Mr Mandela qualified as a lawyer and in 1952 opened a law practice in Johannesburg with his partner, Oliver Tambo.
Together, Mr Mandela and Mr Tambo campaigned against apartheid, the system devised by the all-white National Party which oppressed the black majority.
Charged with high treason
In 1956, Mr Mandela was charged with high treason, along with 155 other activists, but the charges against him were dropped after a four-year trial.
Resistance to apartheid grew, mainly against the new Pass laws, which dictated where blacks were allowed to live and work.
In 1958, Mr Mandela married Winnie Madikizela, who was later to take a very active role in the campaign to free her husband from prison.
Goes underground
The ANC was outlawed in 1960 and Mr Mandela went underground.
Tension with the apartheid regime grew, and soared to new heights in 1960 when 69 black people were shot dead by police in the Sharpeville massacre.
It was the end of peaceful resistance and Mr Mandela, already national vice-president of the ANC, launched a campaign of sabotage against the country's economy. He was eventually arrested and charged with sabotage and attempting to violently overthrow the government. Conducting his own defence, Mr Mandela used the stand to convey his beliefs about democracy, freedom and equality. "I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities," he said.
"It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
Life sentence In the winter of 1964 he was sentenced to life in prison. In the space of 12 months between 1968 and 1969, Mr Mandela's mother died and his eldest son was killed in a car crash but he was not allowed to attend the funerals.
He remained in prison on Robben Island for 18 years before being transferred to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland in 1982.
As Mr Mandela and other ANC leaders languished in prison or lived in exile, South Africa's black township children helped sustain the resistance.
Hundreds were killed and thousands were injured before the schoolchildren's uprising was crushed.
Release campaign
In 1980, Mr Tambo, who was in exile, launched an international campaign to release Mr Mandela. The world community tightened the sanctions first imposed on South Africa in 1967 against the apartheid regime. The pressure produced results, and in 1990, President FW de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, and Mr Mandela was released from prison. The ANC and the National Party soon began talks about forming a new multi-racial democracy for South Africa.
Clashes with Inkatha
But violent clashes broke out between supporters of the Inkatha Freedom Party, a Zulu group led by Chief Buthelezi, and ANC supporters. Despite attempts to resolve the problems through talks, the violence escalated and the Inkatha targeted ANC strongholds, with support from the white police force.
Relations with Mr de Klerk grew tense as the violence persisted, but the two leaders continued to meet sporadically, in an attempt to stop the bloodshed.
In 1992, Mr Mandela divorced his wife, Winnie, after she was convicted on charges of kidnapping and accessory to assault
Nobel Prize for Peace. In December 1993, Mr Mandela and Mr de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Five months later, for the first time in South Africa's history, all races voted in democratic elections and Mr Mandela was elected president. The ANC won 252 of the 400 seats in the national assembly.
Mr Mandela's greatest problem as president was the housing shortage for the poor, and slum townships continued to blight major cities. He entrusted his deputy, Thabo Mbeki, with the day-to-day business of the government, while he concentrated on the ceremonial duties of a leader, building a new international image of South Africa. In that context he succeeded in persuading the country's multinational corporations to remain and invest in South Africa.
Steps down
Mr Mandela gave up the presidency of the ANC in December 1997 in favour of Mr Mbeki, his nominated successor. He stepped down as president after the ANC's landslide victory in the national elections in the summer of 1999, in favour of Mr Mbeki.
Since his retirement he has continued travelling the world, meeting leaders, attending conferences and collecting awards.
Six years ago he married Graca Machel, the widow of the former president of Mozambique.
South Africa Correspondent Greg Barrow said:
Jacob Zuma, South Africa's new Deputy President, is a close ally and long-term friend of President Thabo Mbeki. His appointment to the second-highest post in government consolidates a small circle of trusted advisors around Mbeki, and also ensures that the African National Congress is not accused of anti-Zulu sentiments.
Mr Zuma, who at 57 is the same age as Mbeki, was born into a poor family in what was then known as Zululand, and spent his early years looking after his father's cattle. His political awakenings began early, and at the age of 17 he joined the ANC. It was the beginning of a turbulent political career, which led to his arrest and imprisonment for 10 years with other anti-apartheid activists on Robben Island in the 1960s.
Underground work
On his release, Mr Zuma was instrumental in the establishment of the ANC's underground structures, and he rose rapidly through the ranks of the organisation. By the mid 1970s he had become a hunted man. He was forced to leave South Africa and spent much of the next decade in exile.
It was while he was overseas that Mr Zuma cemented his friendship with Thabo Mbeki. When both men were tipped for the deputy presidency in Nelson Mandela's first cabinet, it was Mr Zuma who stepped aside to allow his old comrade a clear run at the post.
Following the lifting of the ban on the ANC in 1990, Jacob Zuma was one of the very first activists to return to South Africa, and the following year, he was elected deputy secretary-general of the ANC.
Zulu support
During the political violence in KwaZulu-Natal in the run-up to the 1994 elections, Mr Zuma is credited by the ANC for winning over support among the Zulu population, and limiting the powers of the Inkatha Freedom Party leader, Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
Ironically, it was Mr Buthelezi who was Mr Zuma's closest rival for the position of deputy president this time round. In the days following the ANC election victory on 2 June, the ANC tried to woo Mr Buthelezi into accepting the ANC presidency in exchange for giving the ANC control of KwaZulu-Natal. Those negotiations appear to have hit problems, and Zuma may have been seen as a more convenient candidate for his post.
His appointment as deputy president in this government does not make Zuma the anointed successor to Thabo Mbeki. Mr Mbeki hopes to run for two five-year terms, and there will be many others jostling for leadership of the ANC and the country over the next 10 years.
Jacob Zuma enters a cabinet which includes his ex-wife, Nkosazana Zuma, another ANC favourite who has just been promoted to the powerful Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Fiona Forde said:
Cape Argus (Cape Town)
24 December 2007
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has one fervent wish after sweeping the boards in the ANC's national executive election last week - to return the party to its former glory by 2009. Although Madikizela-Mandela is back in political vogue, she has opted to put her feet up for Christmas and has joined Nelson Mandela, their children, 18 grandchildren and three great grandchildren in the Transkei for the festive season.
While the younger members of the Madiba clan eagerly await the 25th and the trappings that come with it, for Madikizela-Mandela it's a day that has long since lost its significance. "When comrade Madiba was in prison we never celebrated Christmas or New Year," she said on the eve of her departure to the Transkei.
"We didn't celebrate his (Madiba's) birthday, or the children's birthday. We always said that one day we will have a normal family. And then we will celebrate like everyone else." She didn't anticipate quite how many years she would have to wait. Or indeed that life would later deal her a very different deck of cards to those she had anticipated.
But while she played the 27-year waiting game, she "developed this culture of not attaching much importance to these holidays", which is still with her to this day, "because they were painful reminders of the abnormality of our society". Far from decking the halls with boughs of holly, Christmas lost its significance at 8115 Ngakane Street. Yet despite the "hardship and brutality of apartheid", she recalls plenty of gaiety under the roof of the Orlando West home.
One of the many who sought refuge at 8115 was Tokyo Sexwale, who lived with the Mandelas during his high school years. "I brought up Tokyo," she explains, and smiles as she recalls those times.
"He was naughty. A silly teenager, just like any other." One misdemeanour that stands out in her mind is the year he wrote off her maroon-coloured Beetle. He was "no more than 16 or 17 years of age". The lodger offered to wash the landlady's car. She duly agreed. He gave it a good polish. And as he stood back to admire his day's work, he decided to take it for a joy ride.
"And the next report I got was that it was a write-off," she recalls, as she breaks into laughter. "I didn't see him for about two weeks." When she did, she spared him neither her wrath nor the rod. "Even though I was against corporal punishment, I walloped him." For the record, she says "he has repaid and repaid and repaid that debt".
Madikizela-Mandela is just weeks away from her 71st birthday, but continues to enjoy a healthy appetite for her characteristic activism. She has been voted back on to the ANC's national executive committee, sweeping the boards with 2 845 votes to her name. Returning to politics will present its fair share of challenges, of that much she's aware. But she's adamant it won't change her life. She has a house to run and a family to maintain and they are of equal importance in her books.
Immaculately groomed and impeccably dressed, Madikizela-Mandela is a woman who claims not to care much for shopping. "Fashion - not at all," she says, dismissing the very thought of it. "I just grab what is available from the wardrobe. I never believed in those sorts of things." She is like a walking advert for Clarins, blessed with youthful skin that bears no resemblance to her seven decades. Yet she claims to use "an ordinary vitamin E skin cream that I buy from Clicks. I can't even remember the name of it".
Her only regret is that much of her life takes place behind the high walls of the Sowetan home, the perimeters of which are thronged with gaping tourists, daily. "No woman gets used to this kind of invasion. I am normally a very private person, but this kind of life is very stressful," she admits, carefully wrapping her arms around her frame.
Madikizela-Mandela is only one of a handful of veteran struggle icons who remains standing.
"It is one of the most painful things, actually, to have to accept that almost everyone of our age is gone, you know. I come from the history of the Lillie Ngoyi, the Helen Josephs, great stalwarts." Winnie is reminiscing now and her face is writ with emotion.
"I knew Chief Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo, JP Marx, all those are gone. Chris Hani is gone. It is a scary thought when you think of it. But my goodness, the world is getting smaller and smaller."
But rather than dampen her spirits, it's a fact that just seems to fuel her fire even further: "I am going to return the ANC to its former glory by 2009. Watch me."
Source: GuardianUnlimited.Zuma charged with corruption
Staff and agencies
Friday December 28, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Jacob Zuma, who defeated South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, to become African National Congress leader this month, has been served with prosecution papers for alleged corruption, his lawyer said today.
The charges involved were "various counts of racketeering, money laundering, corruption and fraud," Michael Hulley said in an email to the AFP news agency.
"According to the indictment, which was served on Mr Zuma's Johannesburg residence in his absence, the trial is to proceed on 14 August 2008," he added.
A corruption trial could derail Zuma's attempt to gain the ANC presidential ticket and succeed Mbeki at the 2009 presidential election, despite his crushing victory in the ANC leadership vote just over a week ago.
Charges were expected, with prosecutors saying soon after the ANC vote that they had sufficient evidence to indict Zuma for allegedly accepting substantial bribes from a French arms company.
The timing of this initial revelation, hours before Zuma made his first speech to the ANC's national conference as party leader, prompted suspicions of a conspiracy by Mbeki's office to stop Zuma from becoming president.
Zuma humiliated Mbeki in the leadership election, defeating him with more than 60% of the vote and sweeping the president's allies out of all the top party posts.
Zuma has said he will not resign unless he is convicted. His supporters have threatened to try and force an early election.
Mbeki sacked Zuma as South Africa's deputy president two years ago when he was first charged with corruption. Those charges were dropped last year but Zuma's financial advisor, Schabir Shaik, was subsequently convicted for facilitating bribes to him on behalf of a French company, Thint, and sent to prison for 15 years.
Last month, South Africa's court of appeal opened the way for Zuma to be charged again when it ruled that the seizure by police of incriminating documents from his home and office was legal.
The court also said investigators could have access to papers about a meeting between Zuma and Thint at which it is alleged payment of a substantial bribe was discussed.
Zuma was tried separately for rape last year, but was acquitted.
La msingi hapa ni je mulungula alichukua?
Kama alichukua sheria ichukue mkondo wake, siye kwamba wafiche kwa vile tu kawa mwenyekiti wa chama tawala!
We expected this long time!
Ila Zuma pia atashinda na itampandisha sana chart SA.
Hizi sii tuhuma mpya! Ataruka tu hiki kiunzi!
Sikuelewa kwa nini wamesogeza mbele tarehe ya mashtaka hadi eto mwezi wa August mwaka 2008. Je ni kutaka kutoa nafasi kwa Zuma kuvuruga kesi au kutaka kuendesha kesi hiyo mahakamani hadi ifikapo wakati wa uchaguzi wa Rais kusudi Zuma asigombee kutokana na kuwa na kesi mahakamani.