She said
through her legal representative, Advocate Dali Mpofu SC, during her appearance
at the Durban High Court on Monday.
The appearance
marked the start of her two-week trial.
Zuma-Sambudla,
who appeared in good spirits and was seen smiling in court, faces serious
allegations linked to her social media activity during the deadly unrest, which
caused extensive economic damage, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal.
The state
alleges that she played a key role in inciting the violence and faces three
counts related to her online posts during the unrest.
The first
charge is incitement to commit terrorism.
Prosecutors
allege that between June 29 and July 2021, Zuma-Sambudla unlawfully and
intentionally encouraged others to commit acts of terrorism.
The second
charge is incitement to commit violence, with the state claiming she instigated
or encouraged people to assemble unlawfully with the intent to disturb public
peace or infringe on others’ rights.
The third
charge concerns a violation of the Riotous Assemblies Act of 1956, which
prohibits illegal gatherings intended to cause a riot.
The state’s
first witness, Major General Gopal Gounden from the Directorate for Priority
Crime Investigation (Hawks), was the coordinator of the team that investigated
the unrest.
Gounden told
the court that investigators had identified three X (formerly Twitter)
accounts, one of which they confirmed as belonging to Zuma-Sambudla.
He said the
other two were fake, containing misspellings of her name. He testified that
Zuma-Sambudla’s verified account was allegedly used to incite violence during
the unrest.
The prosecution
argued that, as the daughter of the former president and with a following of
124,000 users on X, Zuma-Sambudla’s posts carried significant influence.
Her tweets
before and after Zuma’s arrest in July 2021, they said, incited public
violence. IOL
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