Gayton McKenzie highlights Zuma’s softer side

Ex-con, businessman and Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie took to Twitter on Wednesday to showcase a side of South Africa’s beleaguered ex-President that the media doesn’t often report on.

According to McKenzie, Zuma visited a terminally ill Free State boy, and had “a hearty chat full of laughs” with him.

McKenzie says the boy’s dying wish was to meet and converse with Zuma.

McKenzie has expressed his support for Zuma before.

Last year he defended the ex-president on now defunct Gupta-owned television channel ANN7, slamming those within the ANC who had voted against him in a motion of no confidence.

McKenzie was invited on the basis of a column he wrote for The Sunday Independent that questioned the motives of those calling for Zuma to go. He said he suspected they were being “handled” by forces looking to loot the South African government in the absence of Zuma.

While in December last year, the title of a book he released online, Kill Zuma, By Any Means Necessary, led some to believe he had done about-turn regarding his support for Zuma, it turns out the book’s title did not reflect McKenzie’s opinions, but rather referred to its detailing of alleged plots to kill the ex-president.

In the book, McKenzie claims to reveal how MaNtuli, Zuma’s fourth wife, tried without success to kill the president by poisoning him.

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