Zuma-Sambudla pleads not guilty as July unrest trial starts in Durban
UMkhonto weSizwe Party MP Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla has pleaded not guilty to three charges on the first day of her trial on charges linked to the July 2021 unrest.
Her trial began in the Durban High Court on Monday morning.
Zuma-Sambudla, the daughter of former president Jacob Zuma, faces charges of incitement to commit terrorism and two counts of incitement to commit public violence.
Over the next two weeks, several social media posts from her X (Twitter) account will come under scrutiny.
The State believes her tweets fuelled the deadly riots in KZN and Gauteng four years ago.
However, Zuma-Sambudla maintains she's being targeted, with her father's foundation insisting the case is an attempt to settle political scores.
She was all smiles and appeared relaxed before proceedings got underway.
The Jacob Zuma Foundation's Mzawanele Manyi said the charges are petty, politically motivated, and cruel.
“This is just a persecution of President Zuma and his family. It cannot be that now an argument is made that poor people who don't even know where the next food is going to come from, suddenly have money for cell phones, and they are following Dudu on Twitter. And having done that, how do you then make a case that ‘We see you’ then? I put on my shoes, and I went to loot.”
Meanwhile, former president Zuma is also in court to support his daughter.
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