Defence expert disputes evidence of key State witness in Zuma-Sambudla trial

THE defence has produced a report by University of Cape Town-based digital law expert Pitso Tsibolane to challenge the State's evidence regarding the messages posted on Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla’s X account.

- WILLEM PHUNGULA

Zuma-Sambudla, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, is on trial in the Durban High Court. She is accused of inciting terror and public violence linked to the July 2021 unrest.

At the crux of the matter are the tweets she posted about the looting and violence that erupted after her father, former president Jacob Zuma, was taken into custody to serve a sentence for being in contempt of court. The contempt matter related to his failure to appear before the Zondo commission of inquiry.

During cross-examination yesterday of State witness, Emma Sadleir, who is a social media law expert, Zuma-Sambudla’s attorney, Dali Mpofu, presented Tsibolane’s report.

In the report, Tsibolane, who is a senior lecturer in UCT’s Department of Information Systems, argued that the State has not established that Zuma-Sambudla authored the messages.