Did President Jacob Zuma jet off to Swaziland on Thursday night‚ as speculation about his future continues to swirl?
Zuma’s spokesman has rubbished the claim‚ made in a tweet by @Pasco_e.
Posted at 6.34pm on Thursday and containing two pics of Zuma shaking hands with officials while a military plane is parked in the background‚ the tweet reads: “Like a night-running tokoloshe‚ Jacob Zuma snuck into Swaziland last night. The chaps @PresidencyZA posted these pics then quickly deleted them when we started asking questions. We still want to know what he’s doing there.”
I just spoke to @PresidencyZA spokesman Bongani Ngqulunga. His response is this: “This appears to be an old picture. In any event, he did not visit Swaziland [last night].” https://t.co/56rStEjgaZ
— Snap @matthewsavides (@matthewsavides) February 9, 2018
TimesLIVE sent the tweet and pictures to Presidency spokesman Bongani Ngqulunga on Friday morning‚ asking to verify its contents.
He replied on WhatsApp: “This appears to be an old picture. In any event‚ he did not visit Swaziland. That was two years or so ago‚ I think.”
According to The Presidency‚ Zuma visited Swaziland in June 2017 and in August the year before to attend an SADC summit.
In a more formal response‚ Ngqulunga said: “The rumours that President Zuma visited Swaziland yesterday‚ 8 February 2018‚ are not true. The President has not gone out of the country since the AU summit [in Ethiopia in January].”
By 9.15am on Friday the tweet had 127 retweets‚ 90 likes and 33 comments.
Source: TMG Digital.