‘Boundless love’ — Will mercenary scandal strain the bond between Zuma and Duduzile?

When Jacob Zuma emerged from the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday, 4 December 2025, to greet a throng of supporters in the latest episode of the Arms Deal corruption trial, conspicuous by her absence was Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla.

For a solid two decades, she had been more than a pillar of strength to her father during the most trying of times.

Without her critical intervention when Zuma was charged with rape 20 years ago, he probably would never have become president of the African National Congress in 2007 and of South Africa two years later.

It was her testimony as a defence witness that persuaded Judge Willem van der Merwe to accept Zuma’s version of events during a trial that polarised society.

It drew attention to a bond between a daughter, then 23 years old, and a man who would forever be in the spotlight of South African politics, for better or worse.

That Zuma walked alone in court last week did not signal that Zuma-Sambudla had, as have many former comrades, also deserted him.

Like father, like daughter

It pointed to a daughter firmly on course to inherit a legacy of dogged defiance, legal wrangles, political misjudgement, intriguing machinations and personal traits that polarise those around them.

While her father appeared in court, more evidence emerged of her alleged active involvement in the recruitment of 17 men duped into fighting on the Russian side against Ukraine. Relatives demanding answers from the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party protested outside the Durban City Hall. Her half-sister, Nkosazana Bonganini Zuma-Mncube, has also laid human trafficking and fraud charges against her.

Read more: Nkosazana Zuma-Mncube accuses half-sister Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla of trafficking family to Russia front line

Like her father, who had to step aside from active political leadership many years ago to attend to his legal woes, Zuma-Sambudla has resigned as a Member of Parliament and chairperson of the Southern Caucus of the Pan-African Parliament to help bring the recruits back.

She is also on trial in the Durban high court for allegedly inciting violence through social media posts during riots in July 2021 after her father was imprisoned for disregarding a court order to testify at the State Capture Commission.

These days, it is the turn of the father to sit in the public gallery in support of the daughter in the dock.

Having been at her father’s side during his more than two decades of brushes with the law and protracted trials, she would have been inspired to follow in the footsteps of the man she so demonstrably admires and calls her first love in a birthday message on social media.

My First Love … It Has ALWAYS Been You Dad ❤️ pic.twitter.com/hVOYihByTT

— Hon. Dudu Zuma-Sambudla (@DZumaSambudla) December 20, 2024

Read more: Expert says Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla ‘should have faced four charges’ over July 2021 unrest

MK party launch

When Zuma made the dramatic announcement of the launch of the Umkhonto Wesizwe Party to contest the elections against the ANC in December 2023, it was Zuma-Sambudla who read the statement.

She and Jabulani Khumalo, who had registered the new political party, flanked a very sick Zuma.

The honeymoon with Khumalo was soon over, and he was removed from the leadership of the organisation he helped establish.

Significantly, he claimed that Zuma-Sambudla’s undue influence on her father, through familial proximity, had led to the deterioration of his relationship with Zuma.

While many would be familiar with the Bible verse about no one coming to the Father except through the Son, MK party followers also soon learnt that Duduzile was the gateway to Zuma.

Anyone who has ever been to Zuma’s Nkandla home would know about the many visitors who line up every day for an audience with him. They are from all walks of life, some emerging from backgrounds that only Zuma understands.

Sometimes they stay until the early hours of the following morning, much to the dismay and disapproval of support personnel or whoever has tried to understand Zuma’s sense of priorities in his private and public life.

Because of who she is, Zuma-Sambudla could straddle the many lines of her father’s complex life and facilitate access to him.

The Floyd Shivambu affair

This would perhaps explain her falling out with Floyd Shivambu.

The former deputy president of the Economic Freedom Fighters was appointed by Zuma as national organiser and later secretary-general.

It was in the latter capacity that he attempted to introduce organisational discipline to arrest the disorder in the MK party.

Critical to the success of the approach was a protocol directive to all members to use established organisational channels to raise issues to be escalated to the higher echelons.

It was a necessary gatekeeping initiative which, had it been implemented properly, would have shielded Zuma himself from peddlers who bring tales of fake intelligence investigations, hanky panky in MK party ranks and many petty squabbles that dog many political parties.

While the directive may not have been crafted for Zuma-Sambudla specifically, the organisation would have benefited immensely had it had the effect of reining her in.

But she did not take kindly to Shivambu’s authority.

In February this year, she had to apologise publicly for firing off late-night profanities against him on social media.

At the root of her rage was that Shivambu was a newcomer to the organisation. She took it upon herself to take up the fight against him on behalf of the founding members of the party.

He joined after the MK party had shaken South African politics in the national elections in May 2024 by winning 37 of the 80 seats in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, thus reducing the ANC’s support nationally to 40.2%.

Ironically, Zuma-Sambudla had not been on Khumalo’s side when he litigated against her father in his capacity as a founding member of the party.

Shivambu’s membership was summarily terminated five months later, after he was removed as secretary-general for purportedly plotting a coup within the party.

Read more: How Floyd Shivambu caused his own MK party downfall

But if the MK party had sought to streamline processes for direct access to its president, there is not much that could have been done to restrict Zuma-Sambudla’s proximity to her father, like any of his other children.

It was she who accompanied Zuma on numerous trips abroad on private diplomatic engagements as head of his party’s international relations. As he is received as a former head of state, a beaming Sambudla-Zuma at his side has rubbed shoulders with important world leaders.

Affinity with Putin

Zuma and his party’s adoration of Russian President Vladimir Putin is displayed with pride on MK party apparel.

It is an endorsement in line with the organisation’s preference for stronger economic ties with countries aligned with Brazil, Russia, India and China.

“As Pan-Africanists and as a non-aligned progressive party and peace advocates, the MK Party, under the leadership of President Jacob Zuma, condemns these dangerous provocations by Nato and the West. President Zuma has consistently opposed the militarisation of global conflicts, stating, ‘Africa must reject war and choose diplomacy. The risk of nuclear conflict threatens all humanity, and it is driven by the reckless actions of the West in fuelling this war,’’ the MK party has said.

In April, the MK party also protested at the Union Buildings against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to South Africa.

On her social media postings on the conflict, Zuma-Sambudla is unequivocal in her support for Russia.

Mercenaries for Russia

Therefore, the association of the MK party with the recruitment of mercenaries to fight for Russia in Ukraine came as no surprise.

When families of the recruits said they had been informed that Zuma-Sambudla was part of the operation, what would previously have been dismissed as her typical bravado raised prospects of scary possibilities.

As she sat in the dock on the incitement charges, emblazoned across her bosom was “Modern Day Terrorist”.

On other occasions, “Grenade” has been the message.

What this is meant to convey, subliminally or substantively, is open to speculation.

Whatever it is that she has in mind regarding what is going on in Ukraine and what her role was in the recruitment of these young South Africans from KwaZulu-Natal has been enough to prompt her to resign as an MP.

Announcing her resignation, MK party national chairman Nathi Nhleko was careful to distance the organisation from the debacle. It was Zuma-Sambudla’s decision to step away to attend to the crisis, he said.

Zuma’s presence at the media briefing conveyed the message that her decision to resign had been endorsed at the highest level. She has also laid charges against one of the alleged organisers, Rhulani Khoza, claiming she was misled into linking family members to the recruitment drive.

Read more: Jacob Zuma’s failed mercenary ambitions — from China to Russia, the road is littered with abandoned recruits

According to News24, Zuma has tried to intervene with the Russian defence authorities to secure a safe return of the young men.

It is understandable why Zuma would go to any lengths to rescue his daughter from this quagmire. After all, it is highly unlikely that on her own she could have been involved in an operation of this magnitude and nature without tapping into her father’s networks on such matters.

The MK party could well be correct in saying that it had nothing to do with the recruitment, considering the implications of the organisation being involved in recruiting people to engage in a war that threatens world peace.

Boundless love

However, what happens between father and daughter is another matter.

While an aggrieved Jabulani Khumalo publicly blamed Zuma-Sambudla’s influence on her father as a driver of disunity within the MK party, those depending on the party for a living know better than to cross swords with her.

Zuma gave his daughter away in 2011 to marry Lonwabo Sambudla, an ANC-linked businessman, but her love for her father knows no bounds.

The plight of the young men stranded in Ukraine is unfortunate.

But it might turn out to be the kind of blunder the MK party needed to persuade the Commander General that blind love between father and daughter is not always in the best interests of the political organisation, and that she must be sacrificed.

Time will tell.

This love has endured many storms.

Besides, there would have been no MK party members and leaders in 2025 if Zuma had been convicted and imprisoned in 2006.

Could he possibly forget who stood with him then? DM