Simon Nare
Former president Jacob Zuma’s daughter Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla has requested a probe into the conduct of Presidential Protection Unit (PPU) officers assigned to her ill father, citing meddling in family affairs and political interference in the operations of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP).
In a seven-page letter dated 8 September, which is circulating on social media and was addressed to the unit head, Major-General Wally Rhoode, Zuma-Sambudla raised “serious” concerns about the “adequacy, independence and integrity” of certain aspects of the officers.
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This, she wrote “with a heavy heart”, related to aspects of Zuma’s medical care, given his status as a former head of state.
“My concerns are not motivated by personal or political considerations. They arise from what I have observed, what has been brought to my attention, and the potential consequences should his security or medical care be compromised.
“I have become increasingly concerned that elements within my father’s security detail have become overly familiar with him and his private affairs, to the point where professional boundaries may have been compromised,” wrote Zuma-Sambudla.
She described her father as humble and trusting to a point where these “virtues” may have been manipulated, resulting in the officers becoming involved in matters that fell outside their security scope, claiming that the officers had become involved in family gossip and internal MKP disputes.
She also claimed that some of the officers may have aligned themselves with particular individuals or factions around her father.
“A protection detail should, in my view, remain professional, impartial and focused exclusively on the safety and security of the person whom it is assigned to protect. It is deeply concerning if members of such a detail are perceived to be participating in political factions, influencing access to the president, or becoming part of competing interests surrounding him,” she said.
The former MP claimed that it had been brought to her attention that there may be improper relationships, collusion and alliances between certain members of the PPU, one of whom she named as Siphokazi Xuma, and certain MKP national officials.
She further claimed that there were concerning allegations that certain members of the security detail were receiving kickbacks, inducements or other benefits from these national officials in exchange for favours, such as determining who had access to Zuma.
“If substantiated, such conduct would represent an extremely serious breach of professional integrity and would potentially place my father’s security at considerable risk.
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“I further understand that individuals may at times be prevented from seeing my father not because they have been assessed as genuine security threats, but because they are allegedly not part of a particular group network surrounding him,” she said.
Zuma-Sambudla said that these allegations should be independently probed and verified and that the severity of the allegations could not simply be ignored.
She alleged that it had been brought to her attention that security detail member Xuma at times determined and confirmed meetings at extremely short notice for reasons that served her own political or personal expediency, pointing out that a former head of state should not be moved to an unfamiliar venue at very short notice.
“I am therefore asking Major-General Rhoode to urgently re-establish: Who has authority to arrange or alter President Zuma’s movements and meetings: How much advance notice is ordinarily provided to the PPU,” she wrote.
