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Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla
A police digital forensic specialist and state witness, Brigadier Janine Steynberg, is expected to be cross-examined in the High Court in Durban on Tuesday.
The focus will be on her analysis of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party Member of Parliament Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla’s social media posts in July 2021.
She has been charged with inciting terrorism and violence related to the unrest.
On Monday, Brigadier Steynberg said that the social media posts could have led to the violence.
She also said that the tone of Zuma-Sambudla’s posts on the social media platform X shifted after the Constitutional Court convicted her father, former president Jacob Zuma, of contempt of court.
“The day after the sentencing of the former president, there were no really relevant posts. It was on the 30th of June 2021, which was the day after the accused had published a tweet of a video containing a protest. In this tweet, she uses the word AMANDLA for the first time.”
Steynberg adds: “There was a statement which says, ‘Comrades, the time to fight in this arena with mobile phones is over!’ And that was the first time my Lord, when I got concerned because that was the first time I understood it being a request perhaps to say, let’s stop this on social media and that this arena is no longer valid. And that might have led to some of the incidents in the violence that happened from July 2021.”
WATCH | The Durban High Court has heard that some social media posts which incited violence during the July 2021 civil unrest were deleted after they were posted, including those posted by Duduzile-Zuma Sambudla. pic.twitter.com/iCLtyrFcHc
— SABC News (@SABCNews) November 17, 2025
VIDEO | Zuma-Sambudla deleted posts after July Unrest investigation was launched: Expert
