Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 28-06-2019
A lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Stellenbosch says Pentecostalism may explain former President Jacob Zuma’s defiance in the face of various criminal charges.
Zuma has been renowned for being able to stay out of a courtroom for years despite repeatedly asking for his day in court.
Instead of shame, Zuma has often boasted of God’s divine support when matters went his way and complained of dark plots when they did not.
Speaking to Radio Islam, Dr. Ilana van Wyk says Zuma is a pastor in one of the neo-Pentecostal churches whose leaders generally support the former president.
“Senile believers in this faith certainly recognize in him the signs of a blessed man and a blessed man is someone who is rich, someone who’s invincible.”
While academics have looked at various dimensions of Zuma’s public support, few have taken its religious dimensions seriously with a number dismissing his religious utterances as mere political populism; another shameless tactic to avoid taking responsibility for his supposed moral decrepitude.
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