Social media analyst to give evidence in Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla trial

The State on Monday announced that it will bring in a social media analyst to give context to Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla’s posts and the subsequent reaction of her followers.

The Umkhonto weSizwe member of Parliament is currently on trial for terrorism and the incitement of public violence related to the deadly July 2021 unrest which led to more than 300 lives being lost and decimated the economy, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

After wrapping up his re-examination of the State witness, investigating officer Brigadier Jenine Kollete Steynberg, prosecutor Yuri Gangai announced that his next witness is a social media analyst. The analyst will provide analysis of the posts and reaction from the people who received messages on social media platforms.

On Monday, the State called its third witness, Steynberg to testify on the authenticity and the links between Zuma-Sambudla’s tweets to the unrest. Steynberg is a digital forensic investigator for the SAPS. 

She told the court that the tweets were indeed posted by Zuma-Sambudla. Steynberg, who is also a specialist in cybercrime investigation, also told the court that there was a nexus between the Zuma-Sambudla’s tweets and the violence that occurred thereafter.

This was contrary to the testimony of the first witness Major-General Gopal Govender from the Directorate of Priority Crime investigations, also known as Hawks.

Under tense cross-examination by Zuma-Sambudla’s attorney Advocate Dali Mpofu SC, Govender had told the court that there was no correlation between the accused tweets and the violence that erupted thereafter.

“My Lord, I disagree with Major-General Govender. For me there was a link between the accused's messages and the violence that followed. Her tweets from February to 29 June 2021 called for support of her father, the former president Jacob Zuma. From 29 to 7 July 2021, the day of Zuma’s imprisonment, I saw the urgent call for violence and after this date the accused's messages were supporting the violence that was taking place,” said Steynberg.

Her testimony resulted in a debate between the State and the defence on whether the reactions from her followers had implications in her case.

The State wants the reaction to the content posted by Zuma-Sambudla to be taken into consideration, as it argues its case of incitement of public violence; however, the defence objected, saying some followers could not be traced and cannot testify in court.

Mpofu argued that some comments to posts cannot be taken seriously, especially when the State is not able to bring people to court to provide the context behind their comments.

Judge Mbuzeni Mathenjwa said that if the State wanted the value of the reaction to Zuma-Sambudla’s tweets to be determined, he would have to rule on the argument. 

The prosecution questioned the intention of Zuma-Sambudla when posting the pictures and videos of the looting and violence during the July 2021 unrest

"We need to know if the intention was not to incite public violence, (then) what was the reason for these posts,” Gangai said.

The trial continues.

willem.phungula@inl.co.za