Smoked out! Dlamini-Zuma’s secret backers

​Presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma met  self-confessed tobacco smuggler Adriano Mazzotti  and his business associates more than the one time   he claims he met her — we have the proof. 

Instagram photographs prove at least two meetings, while a third shows an associate of the dodgy tycoon embracing Dlamini-Zuma, apparently taken in Greece. The others show Mazzotti and Dlamini-Zuma in London and in Sandton. 

Under one of the photographs,  gambling tycoon Philip Anastassopoulos exclaims: “Another nice day with mama Zuma.”

Last week Mazzotti claimed he had only met the presidential hopeful once. 

The photographs and the new information suggest a much closer relationship between Dlamini-Zuma and Mazzotti.

Mazzotti and gambling tycoons Philip and Photios Anastassopoulos — who own Supabets — are said to have taken Dlamini-Zuma to the UK and Greece earlier this year to try to raise funds for her  presidential campaign.

Photios, who is also a non-executive director of Phumelela Gaming and Leisure, posted a photo of himself, Mazzotti and Dlamini-Zuma on his Instagram account on March 25, claiming he “had a good week with mama Zuma and Adriano in London”.

Sources told the Sunday Times this week that Mazzotti and the Anastassopoulos brothers have been funding Dlamini-Zuma’s presidential campaign.

“Dlamini-Zuma has been having secret meetings with these guys twice per month behind her campaign team’s back because she knows they won’t be comfortable working with these controversial figures,” a source said. 

“Mazzotti and Photios have been sharing their private photos from these meetings with Dlamini-Zuma with their business associates while lobbying them to chip in some money for her campaign,” another source said.

• Read the full story on the Sunday Times website