Zuma’s daughter says ANC should be in dock with her father as she calls out Chikane

In yet another plot twist in the unfolding saga of the Zoom meeting between former president Jacob Zuma and his son Duduzane, Zuma Jnr’s twin sister Duduzile (Dudu Zuma-Sambudla) has jumped into the fray to call out ANC veteran Reverend Frank Chikane on some of the details surrounding the aftermath of her mother’s suicide in the year 2000.

She also hit out at the ANC’s alleged poor treatment of her father, who continues to face prosecution for corruption in the arms deal.

Her brother Duduzane told her father in their Zoom interview that the last time he saw his mother’s suicide note was when Chikane allegedly took it from him. He said he nearly got into a bit of a tug-of-war for it with Chikane, who was a director-general in government at that time.

Her note is believed to have asked for Zuma to be barred from his late wife’s funeral. This and other details were reported in the media at the time.

While some reports claimed that the note’s contents were “leaked” to the media, the accepted version of how the matter became public was that the police themselves shared details from the inquest docket with reporters, and the note formed part of it.

The reverend, who is active on Twitter, wrote on Thursday evening: “As a matter of respect for Mama Cde Kate Mantsho Zuma I have decided not to respond to falsehoods about the suicide note. Comrade Jacob Zuma should take responsibility to correct his son because he knows the truth. I hope he has done so, or will still do it!”

Zuma-Sambudla continued defending her father and brother on Friday morning and her responses to Chikane suggested that she felt he had been part of a betrayal of her family and her mother’s trust.

In later tweets over the rest of the weekend, Zuma-Sambudla doubled down on her suspicions about when the suicide note was made public, including repeating the view that it had been done to scupper her father’s chances of being elected ANC president in 2007.

The note was first publicised around late 2006.

She accused the media, including the public, of deliberately targeting her family whenever they spoke out. She also accused the ANC of wanting to “bury” her father through the courts.

She said it was unfair the ANC “put” Zuma in the dock alone, while “the whole ANC, post 94” should be in the dock with him.

“Let’s see who actually leaves in chains,” she said.

On Sunday morning, she shared photographs of her late mother, Kate Mantsho, and paid tribute to her father for having “closed a gap where there was a void”, saying “mummy would be proud of you”.

(Compiled by Gopoalng Moloko and Charles Cilliers)

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