Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla trial: Dali Mpofu accuses police officer of untruthfulness

Former President Jacob Zuma's daughter Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla in the Durban High Court where she is on trial for social media posts which the State says incited the July 2021 unrest.

The second day of testimony in the July 2021 unrest trial of Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla was marked by heated exchanges between the investigating officer and the defence at the Durban High Court.

Detective Bheki Nazo, the investigating officer, continued his testimony on Tuesday. During his testimony on Monday, Nazo asked the court for a five-minute break to step outside for some air, which the court allowed. On Tuesday, he again told the court that he was uncomfortable during cross-examination.

The defence responded that it is not their responsibility to make him comfortable. This followed a heated cross-examination by the defence on the second day, with several disagreements between advocate Dali Mpofu and Nazo, some in which the judge had to intervene and rephrase questions to establish a way forward.

"I want to demonstrate that this witness is totally untruthful," Mpofu said when the judge asked if what was before the court was not hearsay evidence or conspiracies.

Mpofu argued that Nazo's evidence was pure fabrication and humanly insufficient for him to have formulated a view that Zuma-Sambudla was guilty and should have been arrested. He said the police failed in their duties to identify that this was a political game.

Nazo, however, maintained that Zuma-Sambudla's social media posts had encouraged the riots in which people died.

In arguing that the case was a political game, Mpofu read the statement of Sarah-Jane Trent, who laid the complaint against Zuma-Sambudla. Trent is a former forensic research assistant to private investigator Paul O'Sullivan at Forensics for Justice.

Mpofu raised concern that Trent's statement mentioned former President Jacob Zuma and the Guptas. He said Trent had participated in the concealment of alleged fraud and corruption involving President Cyril Ramaphosa's son Andile, yet she is a fraud examiner.

Mpofu said according to Trent, she was assisted by the NPA to compile her statement. He asked Nazo if he was happy with the statement and asked why the Guptas were mentioned.

"I received a statement, I had to investigate and I did that," Nazo responded.

He maintained his standpoint that his role is to investigate when he receives a complaint, and not question the strangeness of the statement.

"This court should not be sitting here if it wasn't for the shenanigans of the State, including yourself," Mpofu said.