Zuma denies early escape to Dubai after leak of emails

JACOB ZUMA, the president of South Africa, has denied reports he is planning to retire to Dubai as he faces down mounting dissent in his own party.

Mr Zuma, who is due to remain in office until 2019, was responding to leaked emails published yesterday.

One email obtained by City Press and purportedly written by Mr Zuma’s son, Duduzane, included a draft of a letter from his father to Dubai’s crown prince.

“I am happy to inform you that my family has decided to make the UAE a second home,” the president was quoted as saying in the letter.

“It will be a great honour for me and my family to gain your patronage during our proposed residency in the UAE.”

The letter was leaked from emails allegedly linked to the millionaire Gupta family, who run mining and computer businesses and are considered close to the South African president.

However, Mr Zuma strongly denied the reports that he was looking to decamp to the Middle East.

“I have my home in Nkandla and I have no intention of living anywhere else,” Bongani Nqqulunga, Mr Zuma’s spokesperson, said on the president’s behalf.

“When I retire I will go home to Nkandla. This is a pure fabrication.”

Rumours about Mr Zuma moving to Dubai also circulated last year.

“We received unconfirmed reports that Zuma wants to leave the country and seek asylum in Dubai because he doesn’t feel safe in his country,” Julius Sello Malema, leader of rival party Economic Freedom Fighters, tweeted in April 2016.

Mr Zuma has faced calls for his resignation from within his party, the African National Congress, over corruption allegations.

Over the weekend critics within the party unsuccessfully pushed for a vote of no confidence at a meeting of its national executive committee in Pretoria.

Frontrunners to replace Mr Zuma when his term ends include his exwife, Nkosazana Dlamini-zuma, and current deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.