Mpofu Accuses Top Cop of Deciding Dudu Zuma-Sambudla Was Guilty Before Investigating

Advocate Dali Mpofu put a blunt accusation to one of KwaZulu-Natal’s top policemen in the Durban High Court on Monday: that he decided Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla was behind the 2021 violence before the investigation had properly started.

The man in the firing line was Bheki Nazo, head of the province’s serious and organised crime unit.

Mpofu, who leads Zuma-Sambudla’s legal team, argued that the case against her was built backwards. In his version, the conclusion came first and the evidence was collected to fit it.

That goes to the heart of her defence. Zuma-Sambudla, the daughter of former president Jacob Zuma, is charged over her alleged role in inciting the July 2021 unrest.

The violence tore through KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, and reports put the death toll at more than 300. She pleaded not guilty when the trial began in November 2025.

Cross-examination is where trials turn. If a court accepts that an investigator had already settled on a suspect, everything he gathered afterwards gets a harder look.

Mpofu has been aggressive from the start. In earlier testimony he dismissed a State witness’s evidence as fabricated and politically motivated.

Monday’s line of attack moves the same argument higher up the chain, to the officer running the investigation.

The State sees it differently. Prosecutors say the case is about the power of words, and that her social media posts during the unrest fed the violence. They are expected to resist any suggestion that the probe was rigged from day one.

Nazo’s answers are what matter next. If he rejected the claim, the defence will have to show the bias in the documents and the timeline. If he conceded anything about when his thinking took shape, expect Mpofu to use it in closing argument.

The trial has already seen State witnesses pull in different directions. One cybercrime specialist reportedly told the court there was no correlation between her posts and the violence, then later appeared to contradict that. Each wobble gives the defence more room.

For ordinary South Africans, the case is a test of whether the justice system treats powerful families, and the people who accuse them, by the same rules.

Source: https://x.com/centralnewsza/status/2115084157617345010

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