Presidency ‘met Zuma wife’ before poison bombshell

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma’s estranged wife Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma held a three-hour meeting with officials from the Presidency at a top North Coast hotel — just before the Sunday Times revealed that she had been exiled from Nkandla after allegedly being linked to a poison plot against the president.

MaNtuli was spotted at the five-star Oyster Box Hotel in Umhlanga Rocks about two weeks ago, when she met with a group of officials in the hotel’s restaurant.

Hotel staff said the men identified themselves as being Presidency staff and the meeting lasted more than three hours.

“There were more than five people who had come to meet with her,” said an insider at the hotel.

Meanwhile, family and friends have closed ranks around MaNtuli and refused to comment on the allegations against her.

The Sunday Times reached MaNtuli on her cellphone this week, but she cut the line before she could be questioned.

When called again, her phone rang unanswered.

She also did not respond to an SMS request for her comment.

A politically connected Durban North businessman said that even though MaNtuli had been “exiled” from the Zuma family, she was unlikely to turn against her husband because she still depended on the family.

“She is no longer part of the circle. . . she’s in political exile basically, but she is still being taken care of,” he said.

The Presidency has not denied the claims about the poison plot except for a curt comment from presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj that the allegations were “based on total speculation and gossip”.

A leader of MaNtuli’s church, Kingdom Fellowship Church in Maphumulo in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, who did not want to be named, described MaNtuli as a longtime dedicated member of the church “and a child of God who loves God so much”.

“I don’t know anything else. I don’t want to get involved because this is a family matter.

“As a church we were not happy about what we are seeing,” she said. MaNtuli lives in Durban North. A property tycoon who is said to be hosting her at one of his properties denied this when contacted by the Sunday Times.

The former Umkhonto weSizwe soldier said: “No, no, no! I don’t have any member of the Zuma family in my properties. It must be a mistake.”

A local celebrity who is close to the Zuma family would only say: “This matter is a bit sensitive.”

Traces of poison were said to have been found in Zuma’s blood when he secretly consulted Russian doctors —

No, no, no! I don’t have any member of the Zuma family in my properties. It must be a mistake

who confirmed an earlier diagnosis by American doctors — on a visit to Russia in August last year.

His relationship with his second wife deteriorated after that and she was thrown out of his Nkandla compound in January — a fact confirmed by the president’s brother, Michael Zuma.

President Zuma’s personal physician, Dr Harold Adams, was sidelined after the Russia trip, apparently because he had “failed to diagnose” the poison.

Zuma also used the trip to discuss the nuclear deal between South Africa and Russia, with his counterpart, President Vladimir Putin. The South African president met Putin on his third day in Russia — after two days of what were described at the time as “low-key meetings and . . . rest”.