Zooming with Zumas: South Africa’s new guilty pleasure

Former president Jacob Zuma and his son Duduzane are fast becoming Youtube stars, with the launch of  their controversial show, Zooming with Zumas, on the video sharing platform.

Zooming with Zumas features an almost hour-long conversation between the father and son duo and while it may be too soon to tell, it seems no topic is off limits, including those jaw-dropping poisoning claims fit for spy novels.

During a time when a nationwide lockdown has people trapped indoors, mostly turning to good-quality television (in this case, streaming), the show has a bigger audience than it usually would and with the arms deal case less than a month away, South Africans are undoubtedly holding their breath for a possible bombshell.

Coincidentally, the first part of the conversation was aired the same week the Pietermaritzburg High Court postponed the corruption trial against Zuma and French arms manufacturer to June 2020.

Loss and mysterious poison plots

In the first episode, Zuma Snr talks about the death of his son, Vusi – who was reported to have succumbed to a short illness in July 2018, however Zuma revealed in the broadcast that it was foul play at the hands of his adversaries.

“Now that I know what took him is what pains me even more, because I now know it was people who were trying to kill me or to reach me”, said Zuma.

The Zumas also touched on the alleged 2014 attempt to poison the former president, by his now estranged wife Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) failed to put together sufficient evidence against the former first lady, who has long denied the allegations, and decided in 2019, to not go forward with the case.

In another revelation, Zuma Jnr spoke of how Deputy President David Mabuza, once an ally of the family, stopped communicating with him after the then Mpumalanga premier had to be jetted to Russia for treatment after being allegedly poisoned in 2016.

Zuma on Ramaphosa’s ANC leadership win

The former president said it became evident during the build up to the elective congress that certain factions had been formed and that money played a role during the election.

“The ideological strength of the ANC was being seriously buttered so that you emerge with the kind of ANC that was going to be driven by the money, like a business or even worse. That, in a sense, would have undermined the integrity of the ANC and what it stands for”, Zuma said.

In December 2017, Cyril Ramaphosa was elected the ANC’s President – an election which paved the way for the country’s leadership and in some instances, further expose the division between the ruling party.