South Africa's First-Quarter Contraction Is Zuma's Fifth: Chart

(Bloomberg) -- Jacob Zuma stepped into South Africa’s presidency in May 2009, toward the end of a three-quarter economic recession. Since then, he’s presided over five more quarterly contractions including a 0.7 percent drop in the three months to March that dumped the country into its second recession since 2009. In the 15 preceding years since the advent of democracy, there had been only three negative quarters.

To contact the reporters on this story: Robert Brand in Cape Town at rbrand9@bloomberg.net, Vernon Wessels in Johannesburg at vwessels@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Samuel Potter at spotter33@bloomberg.net, Robert Brand, John Viljoen