POLITICS OF ANARCHY
Heirs and disgraces: Duduzane Zuma uses the backdrop of anarchy to drive his campaign for the presidency
Sources in ANC KZN say the young Zuma who wants to be president is smoking his socks, but the oligarch is a shareholder of the Gupta billions.
With 45 people dead in a spree of looting and violence in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, Duduzane Zuma has used the backdrop to drive his campaign to become president. On Tuesday, after a week when he and his twin sister, Duduzile Sambudla-Zuma, fanned the flames to ignite violence after the arrest of their father, former president Jacob Zuma, the prisoner’s favourite son has now turned peacekeeper.
In an Instagram video, Duduzane Zuma said, “I am about peace, I am about unity,” as he opined on the “protests” which started as a response to Zuma’s jailing but which have now spiralled out of control. He blamed the looting spree that has disabled KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng on the lockdown and his father’s arrest.
“We are one massacre away from a complete breakdown,” the telegenic young politician says in an 11-minute made-for-Instagram video.
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This is a far cry from the mayhem he has urged for almost a fortnight now as he and Sambudla-Zuma became the digital war-criers for the “protests”, which first resulted in trucks being burnt on the N3, the country’s economic arterial road, which was shut for days as authorities struggled to bring it under control. He uses social media to campaign under the social media campaign name of @duduzane_fp, where the ‘fp’ means ‘for president’, with a clearly millennial target audience.
In an earlier TikTok drop, he defined his campaign as “reset, redistribute, rebuild”. He has aligned with the Radical Economic Transformation faction of the ANC, which is building a campaign to try to unseat President Cyril Ramaphosa when (or if) the party holds an elective conference in 2022. It’s not clear if this faction supports his bid.
Duduzane Zuma in June 2021. (Photo: SANDILE NDLOVU)
While his sister is regarded as the orchestra conductor of incitement, Duduzane Zuma also wore battle gear at Nkandla ahead of his father’s arrest and played a key role in the resistance at the homestead ahead of the former president’s jailing a week ago.
He has shifted gears from militant firebrand to peacemaker and solution-seeker because the national mood has turned against the looting. As people see visuals of crying workers turning up at the carcasses of the shops they worked in, even the sympathy vote that the Zumas relied on in KwaZulu-Natal is fast evaporating.
The spree of arson, looting and violence has taken South Africa to the brink.
Ramaphosa warned on Monday that South Africa now faced food and other essential goods shortages as key infrastructure was taken out in the unprecedented anarchy that has gripped the country. In KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng the looting has proven almost unstoppable even after the army was deployed and the boots hit the ground on Tuesday. Early tallies suggest the damage could run into billions of rands.
Duduzane Zuma in June 2021. (Photo: SANDILE NDLOVU)
Duduzane Zuma is planning for a run as South Africa’s president in 2024 when the country holds its next election, and he kicked off his campaign with food parcel drops in June. Yet, in his latest Instagram video, he says, “Handing out food parcels is a temporary solution”, as he advocates for free education and communal kitchens. It’s a 360-degree turn for the young man who until recently was living the high life in Dubai, sailing in yachts, and sharing in the State Capture bounty.
He is a shareholder in all the Gupta family’s businesses, so has probably got fat profits from the R16-billion (and counting) that the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture’s money-flows analyst Paul Holden has calculated flowed to the family. That money could be used to fund his campaign, which he plans to run on an ANC ticket.
Images show Duduzane Zuma addressing ANC branch meetings in eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal. The province is the most populous for the ANC and delivers the highest number of votes at conferences where the party elects its presidents. To get to a conference, the young Zuma needs to chair a branch. He can try to buy his way in, but a source, who spoke to Daily Maverick on condition of anonymity, said he has a less than zero chance of winning a party nod for party president.
“He has no support,” said the ANC official, adding that Duduzane Zuma had revealed his political naivety by running in a region that is the stronghold of Zandile Gumede, the eThekwini former mayor who is mounting fierce opposition to the incumbent ANC leadership. Duduzane Zuma is not even on her slate of candidates for the regional conference, which has been repeatedly postponed because of Covid-19 considerations.
Duduzane Zuma had another super spreader rally in KZN yesterday. Campaigning for the ANC, but no ANC leadership in KZN is aware of his multiple rallies across the length and breath of KZN. He also has another packed week of campaigning ahead for the “ANC” pic.twitter.com/G2o6foo55P
— Goolam (@goolammv) June 27, 2021
The looting is proving difficult to bring under control, but the initial protests and truck burnings were politically planned to begin to force an insurrection and realignment of politics in the ANC. The plan has proven messy and Duduzane Zuma’s chameleon-like performances on Instagram tell the story of how the moment may have got away from its instigators. DM
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Excellent article. Thank you and thank you for pointing out that this young man is obscenely rich with most of his millions safely stashed away in Dubai. He must be having a good giggle at the gullibility of the ordinary South African.
The EFF is silent, why? Did they orchestrate the looting spree by piggy backing the Zuma issue.
Never thought of them. Yes, why aren’t they saying anything.
Because they are and have always been irrelevant when in adult company.
How is it even possible for him to be back here? I thought the NPA was after him with charges!
Exactly!
Is a new political party in the pipeline for the twins?
Don Jnr.
Please can we stop giving this scum so much attention?
He will be in jail or the cemetery.
Surely some charge can be levied against him for these illegal gatherings and no mask? Come on opposition parties, earn our votes. Make it happen.
Seems charges have been laid by the DA against the Zuma twins
Well, he seems to have all the makings of a politician. He lies with a straight face, exploits peoples suffering, pretends he is ‘one of us’, rolls in the money, lies with a straight face, pretends he is something he is not, walk amongst ‘his people’ with an armed guard, lies with a straight face and changes tack faster than Button shifts gears. Oh, he also lies with a straight face.
A very accurate description of almost every politician 🙂
The arrogance of this young man is extraordinary-if he had talent to match it he would be unbeatable- as it is he is just a very rich young man with oodles of sickening misplaced self confidence
A typical psychopath, just like his father. Superficially friendly, charming, intrinsically extremely self serving, rotten to the core, no heart, no conscience. JZ was nothing more than the ultimate hustler, con artist, and master manipulator. Even intelligent people can be misled by their charms and tricks. Sneaky, cheeky and sly. Find the article on News 24 “Helen Zille| The Jakob Zuma I came to know was unfailingly warm and humane. ” The rather naive, gullible HZ went straight into the pocket of this Great Pretender, wonderful actor, polished performer. He exactly knew when to hit. Psychopaths are very often the eternal optimists, always trusting upon their manipulative skills to get them out of trouble. Feelings of remorse, regret, shame are alien to them. Anything goes in their endeavours. The ultimate unscrupulous opportunists. JZ remained always cheerful and upbeat.
And do not forget Duduzane must have the financial backing of the Guptas. It would not surprise me if he is just their “surrogate president elect”. I do not think he would be pushing for the presidency without their backing as they plan their return to further their enrichment at the expense of every South African.
Very pertinent analysis of psychopathic tendencies Marcel ! Very hard to unravel/unpack !
He’d better have his ticket to Dubai ready, because hopefully it sounds like the NPA has lost patience with the Zuma clan, and are coming for them.
He is his fathers son.
The children of nasty leaders all share this arrogant exploit the masses style. I’m thinking of Gaddafi. Husseins and Mugabe.
SA was lucky to end the Zuma years. Why would South Africans vote any member of that corrupt family into political power again?
Are we that stupid and gullible ?
Yes, there are many, many local South Africans who will vote for him , because he has his father’s talent to lie, deceive and mislead the mass – and don’t forget – he is black and unfortunately, mainly as a result of his father’s racially divisive governing of the country, that is a major positive in his favour.
We aren’t, but a lot of poorly educated people especially Zulus would.
Check his Twitter cheering on the mayhem: “Let everything burn. #FreeJacobZuma
Add to this Jimmy Manyi’s threat that riots will not stop before Zuma is freed: Blatant blackmail. In fact – treason.
The whole bunch of agents provocateurs need to be locked up and slammed with the full might of the law – or what’s left of it…
How come this guy isn’t facing charges he was a Gupta partner in my enterprises? He is his fathers proxy with the Guptas, all his millions really belongs to him even though he pleads poverty.
How is it possible that he has not been arrested yet, based on all of the evidence where he facilitated state capture? Is he even being investigated? Especially since he may well have private jets permanently idling to escape as soon as he even sniffs a warrant? I am more likely to understand what the Higgs Boson is before I can understand why and how he is able to walk and laugh at us…
At least he could still run for ‘mayor’ of Dubai … that is until the likes of the MBSs in those parts of the world, decide to take him out the ‘way’ they did the journalist ! There is an Afrikaans saying to the effect of “meng jy jou met die semels … dan vreet die ….. jou!”
What we are witnessing is the definition of insanity. Our downtrodden and poverty stricken people vote for this party over and over again and expect different results. For 27 years they have watched their politicians loot, plunder and mismanage state resources and yet they still vote ANC…
How can you expect a different result if you keep doing the same damn thing over and over again! Was insanity a pandemic long before Covid came along?
Make a change to effect change. Stop doing the same thing over and over again. If there was only one thing we could teach our people and future generations it would be this one golden rule.
This mini Zuma…This “cheeseboy” makes me sick just looking at him. He is the new symbol of oppression who will do or say anything to get into power so they can drainand corrupt our state resources again.
Don’t let him do it…hold them to account. Make a change my fellow South Africans so we can finally experience some change.
Zuma… a vile smear of a name and scourge of the poor. I hope they see through the BS
Meeting with the poor in a Harley Davidson t-shirt. Please…
I wonder if this young man has ever done a little history study on the outcomes of dictators children with aspirations for the crown?
“360-degree turn”
“ Duduzane Zuma is planning for a run as South Africa’s president in 2024”
zero chance – he will be dead or in prison long before 2024. Either is fine