Zuma had been dogged by various scandals since taking office in 2009. He has been fighting the reinstatement of corruption charges over a 30 billion-rand, or 2.5 billion-US-dollar, government arms deal in the late 1990s.
In 2016, the country's top court ruled Zuma had violated the constitution by using public funds to upgrade his private residence. Zuma claimed the move was unintended and apologized to the public. He's since repaid the money.
In the same year, an anti-corruption watchdog filed a separate charge. It said Zuma had helped his wealthy friends from the Gupta family win state contracts.
He unleashed open war within the ANC last year, by firing his finance minister. In December, Zuma was replaced as ANC chief by his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa.
During his presidency, Zuma faced over 700 counts of fraud and corruption allegations. And he had survived a staggering eight parliamentary votes of no-confidence.