Zuma's daughter Thuthukile gets tongues wagging with call for Godongwana to step aside

Critics have come out guns blazing at former president Jacob Zuma’s daughter and ANC Youth League fundraiser Thuthukile Zuma after she called for finance minister Enoch Godongwana to vacate office amid sexual assault allegations against him. 

A case was laid with police last week by a Mpumalanga masseuse who accused the minister of assaulting her while she gave him a massage in his hotel room in the Kruger National Park. 

Godongwana denied the allegations, saying they were part of a “smear campaign” against him motivated by a political agenda.

As a husband, father, citizen and public servant, he, his family and the ANC were “deeply concerned” by the allegations, but he would not step aside during the investigation, he said. 

Speaking outside the Gqeberha magistrate’s court where she was attending a court sitting in support of an assault victim, Thuthukile Zuma said Godongwana must step aside. 

“We as ourselves have leaders who have been accused of being perpetrators and we are saying to these leaders we may love you as our leaders but as soon as you have an accusation of being a perpetrator of gender-based violence you must do the honourable thing. You must step aside, not the factional step-aside of the ANC, but you must step aside because you take the gender struggle seriously.

“So, the likes of your Enoch Godongwana must step aside because he must show as a leader of society and a leader of the ANC that [he] takes the gender struggle seriously. He must step aside and allow the courts to take their course without embroiling the name of the ANC and GBV in one sentence.”

On social media, many users pointed out that Zuma's father was once accused of rape but instead of stepping aside he ran for president. 

In 2005, the former president was accused of raping activist Fezekile “Khwezi” Ntsukela Kuzwayo. He was acquitted after claiming it was consensual, saying she had initiated it by wearing a “kanga” (a colourful fabric). 

He also claimed he protected himself against HIV by having a shower after intercourse.