Zuma’s son ‘vanishes’
Ex-president’s son vanishes without paying hate fine
The South Africa Human Rights Commission went to court yesterday to seek a warrant of arrest for Edward Zuma after he failed to fully pay a settlement for his hate speech utterances.
The Durban Equality Court heard that Jacob Zuma’s son disregarded a court order by failing to pay R12,500 to Ohlange High School in Inanda. His attorney‚ Ayanda Mkhwanazi‚ told the court that he did not know if his client was still alive. According to the commission’s lawyer‚ Pavershree Padayachee‚ Zuma thought he could get away with not fulfilling the settlement because he was a high-profile person. Zuma agreed in May to apologise to the public and to pay two schools R30,000 each for hate speech he directed against ministers Derek Hanekom and Pravin Gordhan. In a letter he described Gordhan and Hanekom as “anti-majoritarian sell-out minority in ANC who have brazenly and unabashedly spoken out against [ex-president] Zuma on various white monopoly media platforms”. He called Gordhan one of the most corrupt cadres who‚ like [Mahatma] Gandhi‚ “sees black South Africans as low class”‚ while Hanekom was a “white askari who will do anything to be an obstacle to radical economic transformation”. At the time‚ Zuma agreed to split the R60,000 between Umthombo Secondary School in Howick and Ohlange. Mkhwanazi told the court yesterday that Zuma had already paid Umthombo but still owed Ohlange R12 500. He informed the court he could not get hold of his client to follow up‚ despite numerous phone calls‚ text messages and an e-mail as recently as a week ago. “We don’t know if he is still alive or not‚” he said. Mkhwanazi asked magistrate Irfaan Khalil for one more postponement to allow him time to find Zuma. In granting the postponement‚ Khalil said he would do so to honour the reconciliatory aspect of the Equality Act. “The respondent has admitted he has done wrong. He has paid R30,000 to one school and R17,500 to the second school. It’s just the R12,500 [outstanding]” he said. Khalil speculated he might have fallen into some difficulty to make the payment. He deferred the commission’s application until January 22‚ giving Zuma one more chance to pay his debt in full or to explain to the court why he could not do so.