In contrast to his two predecessors – the saintly Nelson Mandela, who emphasized racial healing, and the aristocratic Thabo Mbeki, who reassured financiers with his strong grasp of macroeconomics – Zuma recognizes the pent-up demand for material improvement in the lives of his country’s tens of millions of have-nots. “We have learned from the mistakes of the past 15 years, especially the manner of which we may have, to some degree, neglected the people’s movement,” he said in April, before his African National Congress swept to victory.