Former President Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma was born on 12 April 1942 at KwaNxamalala in Nkandla, northern KwaZulu-Natal. His early political consciousness was shaped by his cousin Muntukabongwa Zuma, who had fought in the Second World War and later joined the trade union movement and the ANC in Durban. The young Zuma was drawn into the organization and attended its meetings in Mkhumbane (Cator Manor). The President joined the ANC Youth League and SACTU in 1959.  He became an active member of the ANC during the Roaring Fifties – which came as a result of the militant Programme of Action of 1949 – the 1950s were characterised by the Defiance Campaign, the adoption of the Freedom Charter during the Congress of the People held in Kliptown in 1955, the anti-pass campaigns and the historic 1956 Women’s March on the Union Buildings. This was the decade of the youthful and visionary Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Chief Albert Luthuli. It was also a decade of the implementation of the most brutal, ruthless and draconian apartheid laws, including the Suppression of Communism Act and the Group Areas Act, as well as the first of a series of treason trials, including the 1956 Treason Trial. He has fond memories of the mass struggles under the direction of the then President of the ANC, Chief Albert Luthuli and of workers struggles led by the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), of which he was a member.