Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla’s close proximity with her dad, former president Jacob Zuma, has elevated her public persona in the past few years.
Out of the president’s over 20 children, Zuma-Sambudla is the one who has been in the spotlight most with her father as he makes a roaring comeback to mainstream politics, much to the angst of parties like the ANC and EFF, who suffered election setbacks because of Zuma’s new MK party.
It was Duduzile who was with her father in December last year when he announced he would be voting for the MK party in last week’s watershed elections. In fact, she read part of the speech on her father’s behalf that day.Zuma-Sambudla is number 18 on the MK party’s list to Parliament. She will be one of 58 MK members headed for deployment in Parliament.
After the party’s resounding success at the May elections, where they secured over 14% of the national votes and over 2.3 million votes around the country, Zuma-Sambudla has again been central to the public spectra over the MK party – boldy telling media cameras the party would not work with the “ANC of Ramaphosa”.As Duduzile, who is a twin with Duduzane, begins building her public profile as a politician, a deep dive into her much-loved TikTok shows how “Dudu” lives her lavish life with private jets, indulging in bubbly, staying fit in the gym and sharing her bikini snaps, like many young South Africans do these days.Ever so curious, we all rushed over to her TikTok account to see what she’s been up to.
It seems Zuma’s daughter loves TikTok just as much as other folks do. Duduzile, 42, is a twin with Duduzane. Their mother was Kate Mantsho Zuma, Zuma’s Mozambican wife who died by suicide in Pretoria in December 2000.
Duduzile was previously married to Eastern Cape businessman Lonwabo Sambudla. They wedded in 2011 and have been separated for over five years.
While, just like others, she does many TikTok challenges and videos to voice-overs, she shows off her lavish lifestyle while doing it.
In one video she is seen boarding a private jet to the voice-over of someone saying that they don’t fly in “those” kinds of planes where you have to climb over people to get to the bathroom.
The message is clear: we don’t do domestic.
In the clip we see Duduzile showing off the luxurious interior of the private jet.
In another video captioned: “Room service please”, we see her in a snazzy hotel room wearing nothing but a white towel and lip-syncing to Beyoncé’s hit song “Alien Superstar” as she holds a bottle of GH Mumm champagne in her hand.
In a more recent video, she’s seen lip-syncing to Cardi B’s “Like What” track while wearing a MK party printed wrap around her body.
While “singing” to the lyrics, she shows the logos of the ANC and DA parties on one side and on the other side the IEC logo as she says, “First that b*tch hates me, then this b*tch hate me”.
When the lyrics go: “And somehow, they link up and they become friends” she shows the logo of the Judiciary in the centre.
While most of her videos show off her lavish lifestyle, she did however share a very funny clip on Wednesday, of her and her siblings chasing their dad around the house trying to get him to do a TikTok challenge with them.
Additional reporting by Sihle Mlambo