Foreign News
The ex-president’s daughter who faces terror-related 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, Mkhonto 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.
She also included the Zulu word “azishe” which literally means “let it burn” but in slang can mean “let it start” or “let it proceed”.
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.
Duduzile and Duduzane are arguably the most well-known of Zuma’s rumoured 20 children with several wives and former partners.
For several years, it was Duduzane who dominated headlines after his association with the controversial Gupta family came to light in the early 2010s.
That family was at the centre of the corruption allegations that plagued the Zuma presidency. The Guptas and Zuma have denied any wrongdoing.
Apart 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.
She separated from her husband in 2017.
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.
Her higher public profile now makes the case against her “very highly politicised with a strong public interest”, Willem Els, from think-tank the Institute for Security Studies, told the BBC.
Political science academic Prof Bheki Mngomezulu believes the case is politically motivated and a “way of fighting her father”.
“If she wasn’t the daughter of the former president, chances are these charges would have been dropped a long time ago,” he argued.
Both experts also questioned the delay in charging her.
The police’s elite corruption-busting agency, the Hawks, confirmed her arrest in January this year – nearly four years after the deadly protests.
“The fact that so few unrest-related cases have reached conviction also raises eyebrows around whether the prosecution is selective,” Mr Els said.
There have only been a handful of other cases relating to the violence in 2021 that have reached court.
The South African Human Rights Commission, in a statement released earlier this year, indicated that 66 possible cases were currently with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) but it faced challenges due to a “general lack of evidence… and hesitations by witnesses to co-operate or testify due to fears of reprisal and victimisation”.
In the Zuma-Sambudla case, the “high evidentiary bar” will be a big challenge for the prosecutors to show that it was not “just commentary or protest”.
“Prosecutors need to prove intent and causation that a post directly incited terrorism.”
He added that there were “few successful prosecutions” under the relevant legislation and that it was the first time in South Africa’s “legal history that someone has been charged specifically with incitement of terrorism via social media”.
NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga acknowledged in January that the case was “complex in nature” and prosecutors had to bring in external “experts on social media because [the police don’t] have an expert on social media”.
The NPA, however, would not have taken it this far if it was not confident with the case it had built, Mr Els added.
The MK has slammed the case against Zuma-Sambudla as a “social injustice”, while spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndlela dismissed the “trumped up charges” as a “political ploy” and persecution.
Regardless of whether the prosecution is successful or not the party could make hay from the case and present her as a martyr.
Meanwhile, it is likely to generate massive interest from the public and become part of the country’s continuing Zuma drama.
[BBC]
At least seven people have died and more than 80 others are missing after a landslide hit Indonesia’s West Java province, officials said.
The landslide occurred in the West Bandung region, south-east of the capital Jakarta, following days of intense rainfall.
More than thirty homes were destroyed after “landslide material buried residential areas, causing fatalities and affecting local residents”, Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said in a statement.
Flooding, landslide and extreme weather alerts have also been issued for the broader region.
The landslide hit the village of Pasirlangu around 02:30AM on Saturday [24] (19:30 GMT).
Two dozen people were evacuated safely from the affected region, according to Abdul Muhari, communication chief of the National Search Agency.
Images shared by local news outlets showed homes buried under mud and debris.
[BBC]
Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder and alleged drug kingpin Ryan Wedding has been arrested in Mexico and will be extradited to the US after years on the run, FBI Director Kash Patel has said.
Wedding, who had been on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, is accused of running a transnational drug trafficking operation that moved tonnes of cocaine across international borders.
Wedding, 44, was also wanted on murder charges. US officials had said they believed Wedding was living in Mexico under the Sinaloa drug cartel’s protection.
The head of Canada’s federal police force, which assisted in the investigation, spoke alongside Patel on Friday to praise the law enforcement operation.
Wedding is accused of running a vast drug trafficking operation responsible for importing some 60 metric tonnes of cocaine a year.
The organisation operated across North America, as well as several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and was also the largest supplier of cocaine to Canada, bringing in an estimated $1bn a year.
Before he was arrested, Wedding was accused of killing a federal witness in a case against him. Officials say he has also ordered the murders of several others.
Wedding is now facing a slew of felony charges, including witness tampering and intimidation, murder, money laundering and drug trafficking.
The FBI had previously placed a $15m (£11m) reward for information leading to his arrest. Patel declined to comment on whether anyone would be claiming the reward money.
US officials have released limited details regarding how Wedding was captured, except to say that his arrest took place on Thursday night in Mexico City.
Mexico’s top security official, Omar García Harfuch, said in a post on X that Patel had visited Mexico City on Thursday, and departed with two fugitives on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list.
He did not name the men arrested, but said one was a “Canadian citizen who voluntarily surrendered” at the US embassy in Mexico.
The Associated Press, citing an unnamed Mexican Security Cabinet member, reported that Wedding is the Canadian who turned himself in at the US embassy.
In his remarks at a news conference, Patel described Wedding as a “modern-day Pablo Escobar”, referring to the Colombian cartel leader. US officials have also compared him to Mexican drug dealer Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
“When you go after a guy like Ryan Wedding, it takes a united front,” Patel said, thanking Canadian and Mexican authorities for their help in the investigation.
Patel also thanked the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, who participated in taking Wedding into custody.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Patel praised the team, which had also been involved in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro weeks earlier.
“This was a complex, high-stakes operation with zero margin for error,” Patel told the magazine.
“I was on the ground with our team in Mexico and witnessed extraordinary teamwork, precision, and trust between our agents and partners in Mexico.”
Wedding’s aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” “James Conrad King,” and “Jesse King”, the FBI said. He has reportedly had plastic surgery to change his appearance while on the run.
Officials allege that he launched his criminal enterprise following his release from a US federal prison in 2011, where he was serving a sentence for cocaine distribution.
Authorities allege he has ordered dozens of murders across the globe, including in the US, Canada and Latin America.
It is unclear to whom the medals belong. Wedding competed for Canada in the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, but did not win any medals. He came in 24th place in the men’s giant parallel slalom ski event.
In November, the FBI seized his rare 2002 Mercedes CLK-GTR, which had been valued at $13m.
Patel also spoke about the recent arrest of another man in Mexico who had been on the FBI’s most wanted list.
American man Alejandro Castillo was wanted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend. According to the FBI, he has been in hiding in Mexico for nearly 10 years, and will now be extradited back to North Carolina for trial.
(BBC)
Vampire horror film Sinners has broken the record for the most Oscar nominations received by a single film, after being nominated for 16 of Hollywood’s most coveted honours.
The film beat the previous record of 14 nominations, and emerged ahead of its nearest rival this year, Leonardo DiCaprio’s thriller One Battle After Another, which is up for 13 awards.
Sinners’ contenders include its star Michael B Jordan and his British co-stars Wunmi Mosaku and Delroy Lindo.
Other big names up for trophies include Timothée Chalamet, who is hoping for third time lucky after two previous nominations, and Irish actress Jessie Buckley, who is the frontrunner to win best actress for Hamnet.
However, there was no space for her co-star Paul Mescal, who starred opposite Buckley as William Shakespeare in Hamnet; while Wicked: For Good and its stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande missed out completely.
The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Hollywood on 15 March.
The leading films:
- Sinners – 16
- One Battle After Another – 13
- Marty Supreme – 9
- Frankenstein – 9
- Sentimental Value – 9
- Hamnet – 8
[BBC]
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