Jacob Zuma, Mo Ibrahim among World’s Most Influential People

Jacob Zuma and Mo Ibrahim made the Times’ 100 Most Influential People list - the only Africans to make the cut.

Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki were once friends and allies, but they fell out around 2002, allegedly because Mbeki, South Africa’s inscrutable President, suspected that Zuma was plotting to replace him. The power struggle that ensued was a peculiar affair, its very existence denied by the ruling African National Congress (ANC). When Zuma was dismissed from the deputy presidency and later charged with corruption and rape, his followers were convinced that their man was the victim of an Mbeki-inspired vendetta. (He was acquitted of the rape charges; the corruption charges are still being investigated.)

The controversies didn’t hurt Zuma, 66, an unabashed populist who revels in traditional African polygamy—he has several wives—and whose massive rallies feature the Zulu anthem Bring Me My Machine Gun. His pro-poor rhetoric resonates with many ordinary South Africans who have not benefited from Mbeki’s business-friendly policies. That explains how he easily trounced Mbeki in an internal vote last fall to become the ANC’s chairman, a victory that has put him on track to win South Africa’s presidency next year. Many party elders are horrified that such a man should step into shoes once occupied by Nelson Mandela, but they can’t deny that he has achieved an African rarity: the peaceful overthrow of a powerful incumbent.

Mo Ibrahim has always been a man of vision. His doctoral thesis dealt with mobile communications—in 1974. When he started a mobile-phone company, Celtel, in 1998 to work exclusively in Africa, there were just 2 million cell phones on the continent. When he sold it seven years later, there were more than 100 million.

A British national with roots in Sudan, Ibrahim never lost faith in his native Africa. He understood the enormous potential that could be unleashed by technology. Until then, unreliable and inadequate telephone landlines had frustrated Africans’ entrepreneurial abilities. While doing business in Africa, he recognized two other essential but unmet needs: good governance and accountable institutions.

To pursue his vision of a better Africa, Ibrahim, 61, set up a foundation in his name to rate countries on their quality of governance. This annual country index shames governments into bettering their ratings and provides a nuanced picture of the continent’s institutions to non-Africans, who tend to see Africa’s problems as insurmountable. The inaugural Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, which rewards respect for democratic institutions, went to former President of Mozambique Joaquin Chissano last year. Judging by the upwelling of democracy on the continent, it looks as if Mo Ibrahim once again is in the vanguard of change.