Key dates for South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, who resigned on Wednesday after the ruling ANC party threatened to eject him from office via a parliamentary vote of no confidence.
– 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 on the Robben Island prison alongside Nelson Mandela.
– 1973: Freed, he sets up underground ANC networks and then is the group’s chief of intelligence from Zambia.
– 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 a 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.
