Deleted social media posts by South African lawmaker Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla have been recovered, including a video showing a person shooting at an election poster of President Cyril Ramaphosa, a court heard on Wednesday.
Media law expert Emma Sadleir testified at the Durban High Court that investigators retrieved posts Zuma-Sambudla had deleted following deadly riots in July 2021. The posts form part of terrorism charges against the daughter of former president Jacob Zuma and member of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party.
One recovered video shows an individual firing shots at a poster of Ramaphosa, with someone in the background saying “Eish, ja,” according to Sadleir’s testimony. Defence lawyer Dali Mpofu objected to the videos being presented in court, arguing the defence team had not received them in time despite having the case file since March.
“It’s improper to ambush her in this fashion,” Mpofu told the court, according to local media reports. He said the defence agreed to provisionally admit the evidence to allow the trial to proceed but raised concerns about constitutional rights violations.
Zuma-Sambudla, 43, faces one count of inciting terrorism and two counts of inciting public violence related to the July 2021 unrest that killed more than 350 people and caused widespread looting across KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The state alleges she used her X social media account, which had over 360,000 followers at the time, to encourage violence following her father’s imprisonment for contempt of court in July 2021. Jacob Zuma was jailed after refusing to testify in corruption proceedings.
Sadleir, who has been testifying since Tuesday, told the court her analysis found Zuma-Sambudla’s posts showed “encouragement, jubilation and celebration of the unrest that had South Africa on its knees over that period,” according to TimesLive newspaper.
The expert witness said Zuma-Sambudla’s posts were immediately shared in WhatsApp groups that coordinated the riots, including groups named “Free Jacob Zuma” and “Free Zuma Co-ordinators.” Some posts appeared in these groups within a minute of being published on X, formerly Twitter, she said.
“If I am asked whether the accused was an instigator, I would say yes,” Sadleir told the court, according to news reports.
The July 2021 riots began after Jacob Zuma handed himself over to authorities at Estcourt Correctional Centre on July 7, 2021. The violence caused damage estimated at more than 50 billion rand ($2.8 billion) and was described by President Ramaphosa as an attempted insurrection.
Zuma served as president from 2009 to 2018 and was initially sentenced to 15 months in prison but was released after two months on health grounds.
The trial is scheduled to run until Nov 21. Mpofu is expected to cross-examine Sadleir when proceedings resume. The National Prosecuting Authority plans to call eight witnesses, including three social media experts.
Zuma-Sambudla’s defence team has indicated it will seek to have the charges dropped through representations to National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi. The Jacob G Zuma Foundation has called the prosecution “baseless and politically motivated.”
