Tyson Stirs Up Storm in S. Africa

Pairing of boxer with Jacob Zuma too much for ANC
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 1, 2008 12:46 PM CST
Tyson Stirs Up Storm in S. Africa
Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson hugs a pupil during a visit to a school while on a tour of Soweto, South Africa, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008. (AP Photo/Alon Skuy-Daily Times)   (Associated Press)

South Africa is caught up in a bitter debate after Jacob Zuma, the ANC head and probable future president, almost appeared publicly with Mike Tyson at a charity event.
Women's groups were already unhappy that the convicted rapist was getting a hero's welcome; the prospect of an embrace from Zuma—who was tried for and acquitted of rape charges—was too much.

Zuma returned from Davos early to meet “the baddest man on the planet” but pulled out at the last minute, the Mail and Guardian reports. "It may be, and it seems to us, that pressure placed on him in the media may have swayed him," said a women's group leader. Both men are unrepentant about their records: Zuma uses Zulu culture as a defense, and Tyson says it's un-American for guys like him not to get a lot of blow-jobs. (More Mike Tyson stories.)

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