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[FILE IMAGE]: uMkhonto weSizwe Party member of Parliament, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla.
The Durban High Court has heard that there were more than 160 WhatsApp groups created with the intention to cause public disruption during the 2021 July unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
This is according to evidence led by the State’s first witness, the Hawks’ Major-General, Gopaul Govender, who is the National Co-ordinator for Unrest Investigations.
He’s testifying in the trial of uMkhonto weSizwe Party member of Parliament, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, who pleaded not guilty to the charges against her.
Zuma-Sambudla faces one count of incitement to commit the offence of terrorism and two counts of incitement to commit public violence.
General Govender informed the court that more 100 persons of interest were identified by the Hawks from eight WhatsApp groups.
“My Lord, there was a total of 164 WhatsApp social media chat groups that were created for the sole purpose of communicating from the high-level to the ground forces. These (church) groups all did not start after the 7th of July. There was quite a few that were started immediately after the 29th of July following the Constitutional Court’s finding on the 29th of June 2021,” says Govender.
Related Video | July 2021 unrest | Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla pleads not guilty.
