Conger

Religious leaders in South Africa have voiced mixed responses to the election of Jacob Zuma as leader of the governing African National Congress (ANC) party on Dec 18.

Nobel laureate and former Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu had urged the ANC to reject Zuma’s candidacy, while independent church leaders have applauded his election.

Archbishop Goodman Khanyase, leader of African Independent Church the Foundation of the Apostles Congregational Church, said South Africa had been the winner in the ANC leadership race.

“He is a patient leader who cares about others,” Archbishop Khanyase told the ANC party conference in Polokwane after the election. In March, Archbishop Khanyase ordained Zuma as a minister of his church.

“We anointed him after realising that he had remarkable leadership qualities… South Africans must consider themselves blessed that Zuma is now about to be elected ANC president and become the country’s president in 2009,” he said, according to a report published by South Africa’s Independent newspaper.

However Archbishop Tutu had urged the ANC to reject Zuma, saying South Africa would be ashamed to have him as their leader, while outgoing Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane had urged the ANC to elect a man of moral “excellence” to lead the party and country.

Last year prosecutors dropped rape charges filed against Zuma citing a lack of evidence. He is currently being investigated on corruption charges and was forced from office as vice president in 2005 by President Thabo Mbeki following allegations he received kickbacks from arms dealers.

“We’re very worried that this leader had relations with a woman who regarded him as a parent,” Archbishop Tutu told the Mail & Guardian, in an apparent reference to the rape trial.

Last year Archbishop Tutu called upon Zuma to withdraw from the party leadership race. “I pray that someone will be able to counsel him that the most dignified, most selfless thing, the best thing he could do for a land he loves deeply is to declare his decision not to take further part in the succession race of his party,” he said at the Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture in Cape Town.

Tutu also said Zuma did nothing to rebuke ANC activists who demonstrated outside the Johannesburg High Court every day of his rape trial, vilifying the accuser and threatening her life.

“I for one would not be able to hold my head high if a person with such supporters were to become my president, someone who did not think it necessary to apologise for