Former South African President Jacob Zuma’s daughter has been taken into custody and is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday to answer to terrorism related allegations.
Another member of the South African Parliament, Duduzile Zuma Sambudla
is charged with instigating violence during riots in July 2021 that claimed over 350 lives.
According to police, Zuma-Sambudla turned herself in to them on Thursday to be charged with inciting violence and violating the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Act.
“The arrest is as a result of a meticulous investigation by the Durban Crimes Against the State unit of the Serious Organized Crime Investigation, following the unrest that brought the country to a standstill in 2021,” police spokesperson Brigadier Thandi Mbambo said.
Zuma-Sambudla will appear in court on Thursday according to confirmation from her political party. Zuma-Sambudla’s statements on Twitter, now known as X reportedly pushing demonstrators to do greater damage during the nationwide upheaval that began after her father was imprisoned, are the basis for the case against her.
For refusing to testify before a corruption investigation, former President Zuma was sent to prison. After that irate mobs committed massive property destruction, arson and shoplifting. Over 5,000 people were taken into custody.
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Some of the worst disturbances to hit South Africa since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994 were the riots which lasted for more than a week. Although a subsequent inquiry into the riots revealed that they were partially sparked by discontent and poverty during South Africa’s severe lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Zuma-Sambudla was accused of inciting the violence as a show of support for her father.