The first lady versus the domestic worker
Round two: young woman accuses Madiba-zuma of intimidation in escalating row after she is labelled ‘disturbed‘
LAST week one of President Jacob Zuma’s wives, Tobeka Madiba-Zuma, labelled a woman she had taken into her care as “disturbed”.
The woman, who has been employed by a Durban family as a domestic worker, has now hit back. This week she laid a complaint of intimidation with police against Madiba-Zuma.
The case, which has been described by police as a sensitive matter, was opened at the Umlazi police station in Durban on Tuesday.
According to the docket, Madiba-Zuma this week sent threatening cellphone text messages to a 23-year-old woman she had befriended and allowed to stay in her Durban home for four months.
The Sunday Times last week reported that the first lady had allowed the woman to live in her home between January and April after claims that she had been sexually abused by her father. Madiba-Zuma enrolled her at Umlazi Comtech High School and she was chauffeurdriven to classes.
But during April the woman was escorted off Madiba-Zuma’s premises when it emerged she was allegedly being investigated for theft and assault. She was forced to leave “amid fears that she was a threat to the family’s safety and security”.
On Tuesday, however, the woman showed police officers “two threatening cellphone text messages” sent to her from Madiba-Zuma’s cellphone.
On Friday provincial police spokesman Captain Thulani Zwane confirmed that a case of intimidation had been opened against the president’s wife.
He said that no arrest had been made but declined to comment further.
Yesterday Madiba-Zuma said she was unaware of the complaint laid against her. “But I welcome the law to take its full course.” She added: “This is clearly a disturbed young girl who needs help. Depending on how far she goes with her desperate measures, I may have to resort to the law to stop her.”
One of the text messages, written in Zulu and sent on August 11, read: “Hello Angel angipheli moya mina. Mina nawe ngifuna ukubona ozokhathala [Hello Angel I won’t tire. I want to see who between the two of us will get tired of this first].”
The second message, sent the following day, read: “Ususile ngakusiza ngakewenza umuntu ungazazi nokuthi ungubani igama lakho, bengithi ngiyakuzama kawuzameki. Engabe uyotakulwa ngubani . . . uyeka umbuso. Ngize ngingakuboni silima [Now you think you’re clever. I helped you become someone when you didn’t even know what your own name was. I’ve been trying to help you with no success. I wonder who will help you in future . . . you abandoned luxury. I hope I don’t see you, stupid].”
The woman has also accused Madiba-Zuma of lying and abusing her position as the country’s first lady by using resources at her disposal to discredit her.
Last week Madiba-Zuma sent the Sunday Times a personally signed official five-page letter with the Presidency’s logo, describing the woman as “disturbed” and dishonest.
“What disappointed us the most was the level of dishonesty,” said Madiba-Zuma, who took in the woman after reading about her in a newspaper.
The newspaper quoted the
I want to see who between the two of us will get tired of this first
woman as saying she had been sexually abused since 2008 by her father, a Johannesburg taxi owner who had allegedly taken her from her mother in Umkomaas, KwaZulu-Natal.
She said her father kept her locked up in an inner-city flat in Johannesburg and repeatedly raped her. She said she gave birth to a daughter, who died last year at the age of two.
The woman said she tried to commit suicide twice before she was rescued by an aunt.
After reading the story, Madiba-Zuma contacted the woman and invited her to stay.
Madiba-Zuma said the woman’s welcome ended after suspicions emerged about the alleged rape and accusations that the first lady was grooming her to become her widowed brother’s bride.
On Thursday the woman said she was shocked by MadibaZuma’s behaviour.
“I want her to be investigated. She is shielding the fact that she kicked me out because I didn’t want to marry her brother,” she said.