Zuma spotted flying economy class on a Kulula flight

Former president Jacob Zuma – in a move many reckon is just copying his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, was on Wednesday spotted travelling to Johannesburg in economy class on a Kulula plane, ditching first-class seats to be with ‘ordinary’ passengers.

Of course, there isn’t normally first class or business class on any Kulula flights.

Facebook user Simon Hodgson even got to take an in-flight selfie with Zuma.

Hodgson said in his caption of the picture: “Didn’t expect my Wednesday to start like this”.

Zuma was travelling to the home of anti-apartheid struggle heroine Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in Orlando, Soweto, where he went to pay his respects to her family after Madikizela-Mandela died at the Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg on Monday.

Madikizela-Mandela had been ill for some time and had been in and out of hospital since the beginning of the year. Zuma said her death was a shock to him as he was unaware she was in hospital.

On Good Friday, President Ramaphosa was also spotted travelling to Durban in economy class on a commercial flight. Ramaphosa’s co-passengers took to Twitter to applaud the him for saving taxpayers’ monies by using a Safair flight.

Perhaps Zuma didn’t want to feel left out when it comes to cashing in on some of the positive PR that “flying with the people” can bring.

Western Cape premier Helen Zille has also become famous for doing this kind of thing.

A friend of mine is flying Safair to Durbs, and there's a guest on the plane … pic.twitter.com/25Obe9suYb

— Mike Stopforth (@mikestopforth) March 30, 2018

Zuma’s corruption case will resume tomorrow in court, but he seems pretty relaxed about life.

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