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Former MK Party MP Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla will know in a week whether terrorism charges against her related to her infamous “We See You” tweets she posted during the Durban July 2021 riots will be thrown out by the court.
On Thursday, Durban high court judge Mbuzeni Mathenjwa heard arguments from her defence counsel Adv Dali Mpofu who claimed that the state is targeting her because she is the daughter of former president Jacob Zuma.
Zuma-Sambudla is accused of incitement to commit terrorism and public violence linked to the July unrest in 2021 which resulted in 354 deaths and an estimated R50bn in economic and infrastructure damage.
During arguments to discharge the case against her, Mpofu said many people had retweeted Zuma-Sambudla’s posts but were not charged.
He questioned why the state had only charged his client.
Mpofu argued that the tweets made by his client cannot be proved as incitement.
“Who did my client incite? You cannot incite people from the air. There might be an inciter and an incitee. In this case, who is the incitee?” he asked.
He described the state’s evidence on the “We See You” tweets by Zuma-Sambudla as “laughable”.
Mpofu challenged the state to prove that someone broke the law because of Zuma-Sambudla’s social media posts.
Without that link, the state does not have a case, he said.
“Was there any connection or link between whatever she did and the looters? Or anyone else that was that way inclined? The answer was no. I do not believe the state’s case is that she is the cause of those unrests. But I believe the state’s case is that the incitement was through social media. So that is where their case is built.
“The point I’m making, my lord, is that whether it was through social media or a megaphone or whatever, it doesn’t matter. There must still be an ‘incitee’. That’s the point, really. You cannot have incitement [without an incitee]. That’s the crux of this case,” Mpofu said.
Senior prosecutor Mahendra Naidu said the state presented a strong case against Zuma-Sambudla, especially on count one.
He said the state had called witnesses who gave strong testimony against Zuma-Sambudla.
The matter was adjourned to Friday next week for a ruling.
TimesLIVE
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