Former president Jacob Zuma\u00a0says he accepted the country’s top job with reluctance, and believed at the time someone else would have done a better job.<\/p>\n
He expressed these sentiments at a\u00a0farewell event for Presidency staff at the Union Buildings on Friday, reports the Sunday Times<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n In his address,\u00a0Zuma said he had accepted the presidency only because his party had requested it.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce people say \u2018do this\u2019, I wouldn\u2019t defy them. So I said \u2018Well, let me do it to the best of my ability\u2019, and I\u2019m sure as a human being, [it\u2019s] only God and Jesus who don\u2019t commit mistakes.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a human being, I am there to do things but also to make mistakes, and what is important is that you must learn from your mistakes so that you don\u2019t commit more, you lessen the volume of your mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n Zuma added that\u00a0he hoped \u201cthe volume of my mistakes was not so overwhelming . . . it was limited\u201d.<\/p>\n Zuma stepped down on 14 February,\u00a0bringing an end to his scandal-marred tenure and leaving the nation\u2019s leadership in the hands of the ruling AfNC\u2019s new leader, Cyril Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n Calls for him to quit had grown since Ramaphosa replaced him as ANC leader in December, and his fate was sealed when the party\u2019s National Executive Committee decided to order him to step down.<\/p>\n