Trial of ex-South African President Jacob Zuma’s daughter starts

The daughter of former South African president Jacob Zuma has pleaded not guilty to terrorism-related charges at the start of her trial in the coastal city of Durban.

Duduzile Zuma Sambudla is on trial over comments she made on social media four years ago during deadly protests in South Africa after her father was arrested.

A week of chaos in several parts of the country in July 2021, including looting and arson, killed at least 300 people and caused damage estimated at $2.8 billion (£2.2 billion).

Zuma Sambudla (43 years old) was accused of fueling these unrest and faces charges of incitement to commit terrorism and public violence.

The protests were concentrated in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, and came in the wake of the former president’s arrest on charges of disobeying a court order to testify in an investigation into allegations of corruption while he was in power.

Zuma Sambudla has always denied the charges against her, and her lawyer has previously described the state’s case as weak.

She repeatedly said the charges against her were an attempt to settle political scores with her father after he founded his own political party and campaigned against the ANC.

This was echoed by the Jacob Zuma Foundation, which said the case was an “abuse of power” and a “systematic campaign of political and family harassment” against the former president and his family.

A small number of supporters of her party, Umkhonto Wesizwe, gathered outside the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, while her father and other party leaders attended the hearings inside.