Dudu Zuma-Sambudla divided opinion on social media with a single tweet targeted at former public protector Professor Thuli Madonsela. Dudu Zuma-Sambudla sparks outrage over wild Thuli Madonsela tweet The daughter of former president Jacob Zuma uses her social media for one reason, and one reason only – to sow division in South African political discourse,…
Dudu Zuma-Sambudla divided opinion on social media with a single tweet targeted at former public protector Professor Thuli Madonsela. Dudu Zuma-Sambudla sparks outrage over wild Thuli Madonsela tweet. The daughter of former president Jacob Zuma uses her social media for one reason, and one reason only to sow division in South African political discourse, pushing her father as the martyr of the post-apartheid struggle movement.
On Monday, as per the norm, Sambudla targeted the former public protector in a tweet some have argued may have been racist. Quoting Madonsela’s daily motivational tweet about being created in the image of one’s maker, Sambudla sarcastically concurred by posting an image of the professor next to a monkey.
While Sambudla’s tweets rallied up the RET movement whose frustrations were heightened by the July 2022 petrol price hike, some political leaders found her statements wildly abrasive and, at most, deeply repulsive. Former DA leaders Phumzile van Damme and Mmusi Maimane launched attacks at Zuma’s daughter, lambasting the monkey picture as “blatant racism and demeaning of a fellow human being.”
“Her grace in response does not legitimize this. Regardless of who utters this, racism is racism. I hope, you will have the courage to withdraw, apologies and delete,” Maimane wrote. Van Damme, on the other hand, went for the jugular and scoffed Sambudla for being a dim-witted and attention-seeking puppet seeking approval from her father.
