Jacob Zuma

**Jacob Zuma** (December 18 1921 - October 28, 2010), sometimes referred to as **Jacob Zuma Sr** for clarity, was a Libirachi statesman and politician who served as the sixth President of the Libirachi Empire between January 10th 1970 and April 17 2010, before being executed on October 28th of the same year. He also served as First Minister between August 1, 1944 and February 13, 1950, serving as de-facto leader of the Libirachi Republic between 1949 and 1950.

Entering into politics from a young age during the High Republic era of the Imperial Republic of Libirachi, Jacob Zuma joined the Revolutionary Party in 1937 and won a seat to the National Congress in 1940, joining the government of president Eshter Morgan in 1941 and slowly began to climb the ranks of the internal cabinet, ultimately becoming the second in command of the Revolutionary party and the nation itself by 1949; later that year, President Morgan would be assassinated by Progressive party chairman Xi Kanna. With the loss of President Morgan, First Minister Jacob Zuma proclaimed himself Protector of the Empire but refused to acknowledge the death of Morgan, to the extent that new legislation was published in her name and old footage was re-edited to show her alive. Ultimately, Zuma's fragile interim government collapsed under civil unrest as people took up arms against his regime, leading Zuma to flee Beijing and set up a rival government in the Libirachi mountains of Tibet.

Spending the next two decades in exile, Zuma usurped the presidency from the progressive party upon the request of the National Congress, fearing an all out war with the reformed Revolutionary party, which had become the Revolutionary Socialist party during it's exile period. Having assumed the presidency in 1970, Zuma set about swinging the nation leftwards and re-structuring the nation, creating institutions like Imperial Intelligence and the Imperial Security Bureau which would later become tentpoles of the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order in later regimes. Likewise, a major revamp of the economy ensued and led to major socialist redistribution of finances, causing widespread damage to the livelihoods of large swathes of the population, as wealth re-distribution became subject to increasing taxation in order to prop up the regime.

Having brought into existence the major security arms of the nation, Pzresident Zuma began a widespread set of purges to flush out opposition, with a red terror reigning down upon the population and purging thousands from high ranks across the nation, leading to rebellion groups forming across the nation, with notable opposition coming in the form of counter-revolutionary speaker Nathan Jackson, who's outspoken criticism of the Zuma presidency led to several decades being spent in prison, although following Jackson's 2004 escape from a high security prison alongside fellow dissident Spencer Davis, the regime struggled to keep the revolutionary movement down and ultimately the original Libirachi Revolutionary Party would be re-founded under the control of Jackson and Davis in 2008.

With an unofficial political party challenging his regime, Zuma began to crack down even more on the dissidents, although by this point old age and a plethora of illnesses meant that Jacob Zuma had become a hollow shell of his original political prowess and as such much of the administration was running itself, with different ministers fighting amongst themselves to try to covet power and secure their own succession after Zuma's death, leading to a fragmented and fractional government prone to messy infighting. With political leaders such as Laura Fox (Minister of Defence; *2009 - 2010*) and Xi Jimping (Minister for Internal Affairs; *2010*) advocating for an election to prove Zuma's mandate for office, the president capitulated to the younger generation of leaders, and as such the 2010 Libirachi Presidential Election became the first truly democratic election in nearly 200 years; subsequently Zuma was legally ousted from office on April 17, 2010 and by the end of the week most other nations recognised only the Jackson Administration. Having been deposed constitutionally, Zuma was sentenced by a kangaroo court to serve the remainder of his life in prison, a move acclaimed as a show of Jackson's desire to modernise and reform, although just 6 months later, the new president signed an executive order mandating the execution of Jacob Zuma on October 20, 2010.

## History

Born in 1921 to a family of influential politicians, Jacob Zuma quickly became indoctrinated into Eshter Morgan's political party. Entering into politics from a young age during the High Republic era of the Imperial Republic of Libirachi, Jacob Zuma joined the Revolutionary Party in 1937 and won a seat to the National Congress in 1940, joining the government of president Eshter Morgan in 1941 and slowly began to climb the ranks of the internal cabinet, ultimately becoming the second in command of the Revolutionary party and the nation itself by 1949. Coming into power following the death of President Pearce Longwood in 1933, President Eshter Morgan began to take increasingly antagonistic actions, sending the Cold War to the brink of becoming a hot conflict as the Libirachi Empire began to cause boarder skirmishes during the 1930s, sending patrols over the Bovido boarders and claiming parts of their land to be Libirachi property, leading to all out fighting in 1938 and Bovido Archbishop and Emperor Caanan Ujung was quietly removed and replaced behind the scenes in the same year, leading to Matthew Aquilla taking up the mantle and pursuing a more peaceful solution, ceding land to the Libirachi Empire in 1942 and the establishing the Joash Boarder on mainland Asia, which at the time was the largest fortified land boarder in the world. Having proven her mettle in the 1938 Libirachi-Bovido Boarder Skirmishes, President Eshter Morgan began to use her newfound political capital to embark on a socialist redistribution of wealth and land in 1940 under the proclamation of a "Cultural Revolution", stripping vast parts of the federal system favoured by her predecessors and the nation's founders in favour of a more centralised governmental system, inadvertently throwing thousands across the nation into poverty as the chaotic centralisation of power saw those resistant to the plans being removed from office and thrown into holding camps for harbouring "anti revolutionary ideologies".

## First Minister

With as many as 1.2 million detainees being held in some form of holding camp, the government of Eshter Morgan began to find itself shorted by a lack of capable party members to govern the nation, and the Progressive Party gradually began to conduct insurgent warfare against the government under the leadership of party chairman Xi Kanna, using the party's membership of the National Front to hide it's actions; having their connection to rebel groups detected in 1944 following a foiled assassination attempt on First Minister Jacob Zuma, the Progressive party was expelled from the Libirachi National Congress and for the most part the political organs of the party were dissolved by the state, but with notable officials like Chairman Xi escaping the arms of the Imperial Army, the party was able to begin anew in the wilderness of Inner Mongolia, where the party formed into a formidable fighting force. Returning back to the forefront of Libirachi internal affairs in 1945 with the capture of an armed convoy headed for Beijing, the Progressive movement began to carry out guerrilla warfare against the state, forcing the Libirachi Imperial Army to fight a war of attrition against their foes, draining the resources and moral of the Libirachi soldiers in the process. Later the same year, a brutal prison riot at Imperial Holding Camp 456 led to the liquidation of the entire roster of detainees, including children, leading to outrage as the story began to make its way to the civilian population, and many joined up arms with the Progressives to topple the Morgan regime

Battered and bruised by 4 long years of war, the government of President Eshter Morgan cease to function and be dissolved by February 1949, with the Presidium being founded in March 1949 to act as a ruling council instead as the National Congress likewise began to resist Morgan's edicts and was forcefully closed on May 4, 1949. Eager to try and project her own personal power, President Morgan began holding large scale rallies in Beijing as the insurgents began to encircle the city, leading to a fateful speech on June 28, 1949 when Morgan was assassinated on the balcony of Tiananmen gate by a sniper team led personally by Chairman Xi Kanna, leaving the government in disarray and even further internal turmoil. Electing the young First Minister Jacob Zuma to the office of General Secretary of the Revolutionary Party in a closed door meeting on the same day as Morgan's death, the party began to purge itself in seeming preparation for self-exile, but with Zuma at the helm they instead began to perpetuate the lie that Eshter Morgan had indeed survived the assassination attempt, but was receiving medical treatment within the Forbidden City. This so-called "Great Lie" allowed the Zuma government to claim to act on the president's behalf and function as if they were her chosen deputies; indeed, the party even went to the effort to use heavily edited footage and drive around the president's personal train to attempt to show the president was alive and moving about.

Despite governing for 7 months in the name of the assassinated president, the government of First Minister Jacob Zuma began to crumble as the insurgency encroached around Beijing, leading Zuma and his government to flee the capital and set up a rival government in the Libirachi mountains of Tibet. Capturing the capital city of the Libirachi Empire on February 13, 1950, Chairman Xi Kanna was inaugurated as the fourth President of the Libirachi Empire, formally ending the presidency of Eshter Morgan who still held the title legally, making her the only president to rule posthumously. Spending the next two decades in exile, Zuma usurped the presidency from the progressive party upon the request of the National Congress, fearing an all out war with the reformed Revolutionary party, which had become the Revolutionary Socialist party during it's exile period

## Presidency

Having assumed the presidency in 1970, Zuma set about swinging the nation leftwards and re-structuring the nation, creating institutions like Imperial Intelligence and the Imperial Security Bureau which would later become tentpoles of the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order in later regimes. Likewise, a major revamp of the economy ensued and led to major socialist redistribution of finances, causing widespread damage to the livelihoods of large swathes of the population, as wealth re-distribution became subject to increasing taxation in order to prop up the regime.

Having brought into existence the major security arms of the nation, President Zuma began a widespread set of purges to flush out opposition, with a red terror reigning down upon the population and purging thousands from high ranks across the nation, leading to rebellion groups forming across the nation, with notable opposition coming in the form of counter-revolutionary speaker Nathan Jackson, who's outspoken criticism of the Zuma presidency led to several decades being spent in prison, although following Jackson's 2004 escape from a high security prison alongside fellow dissident Spencer Davis, the regime struggled to keep the revolutionary movement down and ultimately the original Libirachi Revolutionary Party would be re-founded under the control of Jackson and Davis in 2008.

With an unofficial political party challenging his regime, Zuma began to crack down even more on the dissidents, although by this point old age and a plethora of illnesses meant that Jacob Zuma had become a hollow shell of his original political prowess and as such much of the administration was running itself, with different ministers fighting amongst themselves to try to covet power and secure their own succession after Zuma's death, leading to a fragmented and fractional government prone to messy infighting. With political leaders such as Laura Fox (Minister of Defence; *2009 - 2010*) and Xi Jimping (Minister for Internal Affairs; *2010*) advocating for an election to prove Zuma's mandate for office, the president capitulated to the younger generation of leaders, and as such the 2010 Libirachi Presidential Election became the first truly democratic election in nearly 200 years; subsequently Zuma was legally ousted from office on April 17, 2010 and by the end of the week most other nations recognised only the Jackson Administration. Having been deposed constitutionally, Zuma was sentenced by a kangaroo court to serve the remainder of his life in prison, a move acclaimed as a show of Jackson's desire to modernise and reform, although just 6 months later, the new president signed an executive order mandating the execution of Jacob Zuma on October 20, 2010.

## Legacy

A deeply divisive figure, Jacob Zuma and the Zuma family have been at the centre of public discourse and discussion on the history of the nation, with much debate being held on whether to celebrate the dictator or eradicate him from the national history books. Whilst the Libirachi Empire had always been a hotspot for authoritarian leadership, the Presidency of Jacob Zuma brought about the end of a constitutional governmental system for just over 40 years, utterly dismantling the courts and constitutional limits imposed by the founding fathers of the Imperial Republic of Libirachi to fit his image as a dictator. Beginning with his tenure as First Minister holding together a facsimile regime in the name of Eshter Morgan, Zuma displayed numerous signs of wanting to be a totalitarian leader, following a trend started by President Morgan of personal rather than party politics and resolutely ending the first era of democracy in the nation. Following off the back of the Xi Kanna regime, Zuma's new security forces were viewed as a necessary tool to bring back order following two decades of dysfunctional government, but ultimately the Imperial Security Bureau became a tool for terror and greatly undermined public happiness with the government, leading to the upper echelons of the regime becoming far removed from the daily suffering of the general populace - despite acting on a largely socialist programme, Zuma's reforms undermined the platform of social responsibility espoused by his predecessor and instead opted for full fledged terror leadership, earning him the dubious honour of being the least popular Libirachi leader in history. Likewise, the fractional disjoined internal warfare between members of government led to instability in the succeeding Jackson government, causing President Nathan Jackson to have to wrestle with different fractions of his own government in order to pass major reforms, with the 2015 elections planned under the 2010 constitution being postponed until 2020 at the behest of Zumaist politicians, invited into government to try to smooth over the transition between governments. This destabilised form of government would ultimately prove fateful for Jackson, who would later be overthrown in a 2019 Coup d'état and executed, allowing for Laura Fox to become empress and her close ally Xi Jimping to become the new president; Zuma's ultimate legacy was the chaotic climate of terror and instability which allowed the very politicians who secretly orchestrated his downfall in 2010 to become the new faces of the nation less than a decade later, seizing off the fatal combination of infighting and political weakness which caused the fall of Zuma's successor in order to re-write the constitution and bring back the monarchy, ending the Imperial Republic and replacing it with the Fox Dynasty which rules today, with the Empress Fox being the daughter of Laura Fox, the first, but short-lived, empress of the Libirachi Empire.

## Gallery

First Minister Jacob Zuma in 1939President Zuma in 1999Official portrait of President Zuma (1987)