JOHANNESBURG — South African President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane on Thursday expressed his condolences to the Plumtree family of a victim of an accident in which he was involved.
“He wanted to introduce himself to the family to share the pain and their grief,” said David Maree, for the family of accident victim Phumzile Dube, outside the Randburg Magistrate’s Court, where an inquest into the crash was being held.
“We afforded him the opportunity to speak to the family and express his condolences to them.”
Zuma’s Porsche rear-ended Jabulani Vusi Dlamini’s minibus taxi on a rainy night in February.
Dube, originally from Plumtree in Zimbabwe — who was a passenger in the minibus — died in the accident, while three others were injured.
The accident happened on the M1 south off-ramp to Grayston Drive in Sandton.
Zuma, Maree and Dube’s family went into a separate courtroom following the conclusion of proceedings for the day.
They spoke for a few minutes, after which Zuma hugged the family members.
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“The family is grateful for this gesture and would like to find closure after this and move on with their lives,” said Maree.
Earlier, Maree and Sabelo Nobangula, for Dlamini, argued that accident reconstruction expert Johannes Petrus Strydom’s evidence be rejected.
Maree said there were certain aspects Strydom had testified about, even though he was not qualified to give an expert opinion on them.
It was submitted that Strydom’s testimony was tailored to help Zuma, instead of assisting the inquest to come to a conclusion regarding the accident.
Johan van Loggerenberg, of the Johannesburg metro police department, did not testify as planned because it was concluded that his evidence and that of Strydom was the same.
The inquest decided it was not necessary to have his input.
Magistrate, Lolita Chetty postponed the inquest to Monday, when the State and Zuma’s defence team are expected to present their closing arguments.
– Sapa/Staff Reporter
