Zuma booed at memorial

JOHANNESBURG (AP): At Nelson Mandela's memorial, the crowd applauded dignitaries and even cheered the last apartheid-era president. But spectators booed South African leader Jacob Zuma, embarrassing him on an international stage and reflecting challenges that the ruling party, once led by Mandela, faces ahead of elections next year.

"Can we please be disciplined?" a vexed Cyril Ramaphosa, deputy leader of the ruling African National Congress, (ANC) said yesterday to the stadium crowd after jeers erupted when a giant video screen showed Zuma, seated among heads of state paying tribute to Mandela.

Corruption scandals have stained Zuma and the ANC, the liberation movement during apartheid that casts itself as the standard-bearer of Mandela's legacy of reconciliation and inclusiveness. Crime, economic inequality and other social challenges have added to public discontent, two decades after the end of apartheid.