Calls for submissions for Jacob Zuma’s envisaged book

The Jacob G. Foundation is working on a project the former president is “quite excited about” and an invitation has been extended to “South Africans from all walks of life whose paths have crossed” with Zuma’s to make submissions towards it.

The former president on Friday tweeted an invitation for people to submit their stories.

In a statement accompanying Zuma’s tweet, the foundation said its office “is facilitating the compilation of a book on the impact and influence” of the former president “on generations of ordinary South Africans and leaders”.

“We invite South Africans to submit a minimum one page or more of an article for consideration in this envisaged book,” the statement reads.

Whether you met Zuma during his youthful days as a herdboy, a young worker, a trade unionist, a prisoner on Robben Island, as an underground operative in uMkhonto weSizwe or as the head of the African National Congress (ANC) intelligence, you are invited to make a submission.

“Perhaps you interacted with him when he was part of CODESA [Convention for a Democratic South Africa] negotiations, when he served as MEC for KwaZulu-Natal or even as deputy president and president of the ANC and the Republic of South Africa,” the statement reads, adding that submissions of photographs are also welcome.

A number of books have already been penned about the former president, which include titles such as The Kanga and the Kangaroo Court: The Rape Trial of Jacob Zuma by Mmatshilo Motsei; Jeremy Gordin’s Zuma, A Biography; The Zuma Years by Richard Calland; and The President’s Keepers by investigative journalist Jacques Pauw, which details a web of alleged corruption around the former president.

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