Jacob Zuma, Former President of South Africa and of the ANC, is born.

Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma was born on the 12 April 1942, at Inkandla, in KwaZulu Natal. At the age of 17, he joined the African National Congress (ANC), becoming an active member of its military wing, uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), in 1962. In 1962, while on his way out of South Africa, he was arrested and charged with conspiring to overthrow the government. After being convicted of this charge, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment on Robben Island. Upon his release he once more became active in organising and mobilising the ANC underground structures in the then Province of Natal.. In 1975, he left South Africa and went into exile in Swaziland and Mozambique.In 1987, he moved to Lusaka, Zambia, and there assumed the position of Head of Underground Structures and later Chief of the Intelligence Department of the ANC in exile. Following the unbanning of the ANC in 1990, he was among the first ANC leaders to return from exile. After the first democratic elections in 1994, Zuma was appointed as the Minister for Economic Affairs and Tourism in The KwaZulu - Natal.He was elected President of the ANC in Polokwane in December 2007, and President of the Republic of South Africa on 6 May 2009.