Jacob Zuma sets Twitter alight with another cryptic tweet

Former president Jacob Zuma Picture: Michele Spatari / Pool via AP

Former president Jacob Zuma Picture: Michele Spatari / Pool via AP

Published Aug 6, 2020

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Durban - Former president Jacob Zuma set Twitter alight on Thursday with another coded tweet, five months after he last tweeted.

The last time he tweeted and set the platform alight was in February this year, when he posted a picture of himself aiming at a target with a high-powered rifle.

That was shortly after the Pietermaritzburg High Court had issued a warrant of arrest against him for failing to appear before it in relation to his ongoing arms deal corruption trial. It later emerged that he skipped court because he was in Cuba receiving medical treatment and the picture of him carrying a rifle was an old one.

In today’s tweet, which was written in Zulu, said: “Iyabhubhudla inkezo!!! Indlu yegagu iyanetha.” This can be loosely translated to: “They are having a feast!!! A self-ordained expert is failing to sort issues relating to his professed expertise.”

Zuma once used the first part of the idiom in December 2017 while ANC delegates were patiently waiting for results of the top six at Nasrec. That was when Cyril Ramaphosa was locked in a bitter battle with Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma for the ANC presidency.

Months after he used and left people confused about what he meant, Durban-based commercial regional radio station Gagasi FM asked him to explain the deep and centuries-old Zulu idiom. He said it is used to alert people passing by a home where there is a huge feast to come in and have a piece of the meal because there is plenty of it.

“It’s a way of alerting a person who is passing by to come inside and have a piece of a meal as well and go,” Zuma told the regional radio station.

One Twitter user who replied to Zuma’s tweet, Siyanda Dlamini, said the ex-president was saying “I told you so”.

“I'm not sure if it's a celebration but it's definitely an ‘I told you so’ if you listen to the hints in his speeches and addresses.

“He did hint on some of the people wanting me gone are worse than y'all think,” Dlamini said in response to Zuma’s tweet.

Political Bureau

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