Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla Faces Trial Amidst Controversial Charges

A new chapter in South Africa's long-running Zuma saga is set to begin with the 43-year-old daughter of the former president due to go on trial this week on terrorism-related charges.

In what is believed to be a first for the country, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla is being prosecuted over what she wrote on social media four years ago during deadly protests.

Jacob Zuma's nine-year presidency, littered with controversies, came to a halt in 2018 amid extensive graft allegations - all denied.

Then in 2021 he was jailed for failing to show up at a corruption inquiry, triggering protests and the worst scenes of violence since before the start of the democratic era in 1994.

A week of anarchy in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces, including looting and arson, left at least 300 people dead and caused an estimated $2.8bn (£2.2bn) damage.

Prosecutors allege Zuma-Sambudla played a central role in stoking this.

This unique trial will be a chance for the state's legal team to prove its mettle in successfully prosecuting cases relating to the 2021 unrest, but the accused sees it as an attempt to settle political scores with her father.

He is now an opposition leader after leaving the African National Congress (ANC) and joining a rival party, uMkhonto weSizwe (MK).

In recent years Zuma-Sambudla has emerged as the former president's most stalwart supporter regularly seen by his side. She has also become an MK member of parliament.

In 2021, she was outraged by his incarceration and posted images from the looting. The allegation is that these praised what was happening and incited her legion of social media followers, some 100,000 at the time, to press on with the mayhem.

Zuma-Sambudla is accused of the incitement to commit terrorism under the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Act. She is also accused of the incitement to commit public violence.

She has denied the charges, with her lawyer describing the state's case as weak. She used a procedural hearing ahead of the trial to take shots at the prosecution, wearing a shirt ironically branded with the words Modern Day Terrorist.

Several dozen posts from July 2021 on what was then known as Twitter are at the heart of the state's case against her.

In one tweet, she shared a film of a vehicle transporter ablaze and stacked with cars shot at Mooi Plaza, a tollgate near one of the towns in KwaZulu-Natal hardest hit by the violence. Along with the hashtag #FreeJacobZuma she wrote: Mooi Plaza…We See You!!! Amandla, along with three fist emojis.

Amandla means power in the Zulu language and was a well-known slogan in the resistance movement against white-minority apartheid rule.

In another tweet she shared a poster calling for the shut down of KwaZulu-Natal including roads, factories, shops [and] government until the former president was released.

The MP was born and raised in Mozambique, where her father was living in exile after spending a decade as a political prisoner in South Africa. She grew up with her twin brother Duduzane and was one of Zuma's five children with his third wife Kate Mantsho - who took her own life in 2000.

For several years, it was Duduzane who dominated headlines after his association with the controversial Gupta family came to light in the early 2010s.

Aside from her lavish wedding to businessman Lonwabo Sambudla in 2011, dubbed the wedding of the year at the time, Zuma-Sambudla kept out of the spotlight. She mostly focused on raising her two daughters and being a housewife, according to South Africa's Daily Maverick news site.

It was around that time that she was seen increasingly at her father's side whenever he appeared in public, either in court or at political events - as a result the spotlight turned towards her.

Zuma-Sambudla backed her father when he joined the MK party. Despite being a political novice, she now has a seat in parliament, after last year's general election, and is an influential figure in the party despite holding no official position.

She was also appointed to the African Union's Pan-African Parliament.

Aside from her controversial 2021 tweets, Zuma-Sambudla has become adept at using her social media accounts to show off her regimented fitness routine, provide glimpses into her private life and throw the occasional barb at her political opponents.

Political experts believe the case is politically motivated and a way of fighting her father. Comments regarding the selective prosecution and the timing of the charges also abound, with speculation that had she not been the daughter of a former president, the charges may have been dismissed much earlier.

The MK has slammed the case against Zuma-Sambudla as a social injustice, while her supporters continue to rally behind her, full of hopes that this trial could serve as a platform to fight ongoing political battles.