WeeklySA_AdminGAME OVER: Zuma-Sambudla must appoint a focused lawyer or face prospects of a lengthy jail term
UMKHONTO we Sizwe Party MP Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla and her octogenarian father, former president Jacob Zuma, either have a death wish or think life is a helluva joke. Or maybe they both lack the emotional intelligence to recognise a life-threatening or career-limiting issue even if it stares them in the face.
After a date was finally set for Zuma-Sambudla to appear in the Durban High Court in November to face terrorism charges following the devastating July 2021 unrest that claimed more than 350 lives, one would have thought that on its own would have awakened her to the realisation that the time for political games was over.
It should also have dawned on her that National Prosecuting Authority was serious about sending her to jail for a very, very, long time for her alleged role in the unrest.
Instead, she was seen strutting her stuff in the courtroom like a little girl in a candy shop and giving TV cameras a toothpaste smile when she should have started to seriously look for a powerful legal mind to defend her in the impending trial.
The prospects of her being represented by the MKP’s resident lawyer, Advocate Dali Mpofu, who was by her side in the Durban Magistrate’s Court when the case was transferred to the high court, should have sent a chill down her spine considering his dismal record in the courtroom in the recent past.
If the string of high-profile cases Mpofu SC has lost while representing the MKP or her father can be used as a yardstick, then Zuma-Sambudla is going to jail for a very long time. But Zuma and MKP being Zuma and MKP, they will insist on Mpofu defending her in the trial.
South Africans have a word for a person who does the same thing over and over again expecting different results. We won’t repeat the word here.
MATRYR OR TERRORIST?
ZUMA-SAMBUDLA proudly appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court clad in a black T-shirt emblazoned with the words: MODERN TERRORIST before her Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Act case was transferred to the Durban High Court, where it will be heard in November.
The legislation, enacted in 2004 and amended in 2022, has replaced the draconian Terrorism Act of 1967, under which many feisty and fearless anti-apartheid activists such as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Stephen Bantu Biko, Peter Jones, Fatima Meer, Reverend Frank Chikane, Jeff Radebe, Neil Aggett, Ahmed Timol and thousands others were detained without trial.
All these political heavyweights and tens of thousands others throughout the country were referred to as “terrorists” by the racist regime, but to millions of the marginalised majority they were struggle heroes whose fight against the unjust, undemocratic and illegitimate government was beyond question.
Now, the question is, does Zuma-Sambudla, by labelling herself a “modern terrorist”, believe she is being persecuted the same way these struggle stalwarts were brutally treated by their apartheid tormentors?
Or does she reckon she represents the modern-day version of this class of selfless struggle stalwarts? Maybe she can shed light on the message she was trying to drive at. But what many people know is that there is a difference between a martyr and a peacetime hero, and between a terrorist and a struggle hero.
ENGLISH’S EXPENSIVE
MANY parents go to hell and back to put their children through expensive private schools so they can speak fluent English and make them proud.
Parents of children who attend an exclusive English-medium private Christian school in Giyani, Limpopo, were reminded of this reality when they received a letter informing them about a grandparents’ day, to which the elderly family members were urged to bring home-cooked traditional foods to be shared among themselves and with the children.
Well and good. But the invitation came with a warning.
“If the grandparents do not come [to the function], the learner’s parent shall be expected to pay a fine of R300 but if they come but empty handed a penalty of R200 shall apply.
The fine is expected on the same day of the event (CASH or EFT). The child shall be allowed in class the following day only if the fine has been paid,” the warning read.
So, if you hear a group of young fellow on a bus or in a taxi having conversing among themselves in fluent English, spare a thought for the trouble their parents and grandparents have to go through day in and day out.
