Zuma-Sambudla first to be charged over X posts - NPA

The 42-year-old daughter of former president Jacob Zuma is facing charges linked to her alleged involvement in the 2021 July unrest.

She's been charged with incitement to commit violence. 

The civil unrest - which left over 300 people dead - broke out after her father was jailed on charges of contempt of court.

During the unrest, several inflammatory posts were shared on what was believed to be Zuma-Sambudla's social media account.

Speaking to the media outside the court, National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said it is the first time that the NPA has charged someone based on their social media content on X (previously Twitter.)

"It's important that we try and disabuse ourselves of this tendency of viewing or arguing legal issues that are still to be ventilated in a trial court from an uninformed, emotional, and political perspective,” he said.

“Let me first explain the delay of about three years before the matter is brought to court. You will understand that she is charged under the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorism and Related Activities Act.

"It is the first time that the NPA is charging a person based on content posted on what we call X, which was previously known as Twitter, for content that we consider to be amounting to incitement to commit terrorism. It's a unique case, complex in nature, in the sense that reliance on the investigation and evidence is based on social media posts.

"It is a technical investigation that some of the parts of the investigative process had to be outsourced in terms of experts on social media because SAPS doesn't have an expert in social media. Secondly, there's the issue of emojis, the issue of images that need to be interpreted by an expert in that field.

"There are procurement processes that need to be followed in order to source or procure that investigative resource. Now, the process of investigating a matter, therefore, has become more protracted than we anticipated. It is that reason why it took almost three years for the matter to finally have a decision made by the prosecution team and a memorandum presented to the National Director for her to authorise the prosecution."

He explained that it was important for the NPA to have the social media posts interpreted.

"There is an issue of authenticity of the evidence; there's the issue of admissibility of the evidence, there are issues that needed to be determined whether this is not a fake account if this is a legitimate account. We needed experts in that field, and unfortunately, the government does not have those resources. They reside outside of the government. Therefore, it had to be outsourced from experts in the field."

Zuma-Sambudla is expected back in court in March for a pre-trial hearing.

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