Poison charge against Zuma wife dropped

Jacob Zuma’s estranged wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma, or MaNtuli, won’t be prosecuted for an alleged poisoning attempt of the former president.

According to reports, no hard evidence could be gathered on the alleged assassination attempt.

Business Day reported yesterday that Ntuli-Zuma won’t be prosecuted for the alleged poisoning in 2014, owing to an apparent total lack of evidence.

Earlier this year, her lawyers appealed to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) boss Shamila Batohi to make a decision on whether she would be charged.

Though Ntuli-Zuma has been at the centre of the allegations since 2015, she has consistently denied them.

Her attorney, Ulrich Roux, said in April: “This matter has been hanging over my client’s head since June 2015.

“In four years, the Saps and the NPA have seemingly made no progress pertaining to any further investigation being conducted herein, and whether there is merit or substance in the allegations levelled against my client.”

In 2017, Ntuli-Zuma also appealed to the NPA to charge or drop the charge.

TimesLive reported at the time that Ntuli-Zuma was considering going to court, as there had been no developments in the case.

Roux told the publication: “My client is frustrated about the delay in the investigation, and she was considering her options pertaining to approaching the high court of South Africa for a declaratory order directing the NPA to make a decision on whether they are proceeding with a prosecution or not.”

Roux said that since the criminal charges had been formally withdrawn, MaNtuli was considering taking the matter further since she had faced allegedly politically trumped-up allegations.

Addressing the ANC Cadres’ Forum in Phongolo, KwaZulu-Natal in 2017, Zuma said he became a target after he had called for radical economic transformation.

“I was poisoned and almost died just because South Africa joined Brics [the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa business communities] under my leadership.

“They said I was going to destroy the country,” Zuma said.

Reports said Russian intelligence agents alleged that Ntuli-Zuma had been involved in a plot to poison her husband.

The agents linked this to a period in which the president had fallen inexplicably ill.

Since then, Ntuli-Zuma has been banned from Nkandla and sidelined.

Zuma, it turns out, had never provided a statement in the matter, so was not a complainant.