Basically, this means that he will be elected South African president. While there is a lot of hand wringing about how Zuma won’t be as “investor friendly” as Mbeki, the fact that there was a contested leadership election in the ANC, and that the incumbent lost in a free and fair vote is a good thing.

This is good…it’s called democracy…

I think that its clear that Zuma’s mandate is to improve the lives of South Africans who live in poverty, and as such, members of the foreign and domestic investor class are likely to have to pay a bit more in taxes and fees, but this is a good thing, not a threat to democracy.

He got more votes than the other guy, and it appears that the exhumation of old corruption charges is more about an anti-democratic effort of Mbeki to stay in power than anything else.