Former South Africa President Zuma's daughter is arrested on terrorism charges

A daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma has been arrested and is expected to appear in court on Thursday to face terrorism charges.

Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, who is also a member of the South African Parliament, is accused of inciting violence during riots in July 2021 which led to the deaths of more than 350 people.

Zuma-Sambudla handed herself over to police on Thursday to face charges under the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Act and incitement to commit violence, police said.

“The arrest is as a result of a meticulous investigation by the Durban Crimes Against the State unit of the Serious Organized Crime Investigation, following the unrest that brought the country to a standstill in 2021,” police spokesperson Brigadier Thandi Mbambo said.

Her political party confirmed that Zuma-Sambudla would appear in court on Thursday.

The case against Zuma-Sambudla is based on posts she made on Twitter, now called X, allegedly urging protesters to cause more damage during nationwide unrest that started after her father was sent to jail.

Former President Zuma was taken to prison for defying a court order to testify before a corruption inquiry. Following that, angry mobs engaged in widespread looting of shops, arson and destruction of property. More than 5,000 people were arrested.

The riots, which lasted more than a week, were some of the worst unrest in South Africa since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994. Zuma-Sambudla was accused of encouraging the unrest as a sign of support for her father, although a later investigation into the riots found that they were partly spurred by frustration and poverty during South Africa's harsh lockdowns because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jacob Zuma was president from 2009 to 2018 but was pressured to resign by the African National Congress party he then led over corruption allegations. That set in motion an ongoing political feud between Zuma and the man who replaced him, current President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Jacob Zuma was expelled from the ANC last year and now leads a new political party called the MK Party, which became the official opposition following last year's national election.

His daughter, Zuma-Sambudla, has become a high-ranking member of the MK Party and is one of its lawmakers. The party has been urging members to support Zuma-Sambudla when she appears at the Durban Magistrates Court in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, where Jacob Zuma has strong support. South African media reported that police were on high alert in the city.

The charges were brought nearly four years after the riots following a long forensic investigation, although Zuma-Sambudla has long been accused of instigating some of the trouble through her social media posts.

“She has conditioned herself, because there have been many threats about her imminent arrest for the past three or four years, MK Party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said. "She is awaiting and she will abide by the law as a law-abiding citizen.”