Does Africa have a new pro-Russian influencer? Russian propaganda has identified Duduzile Zuma. One of the daughters of former South African President Jacob Zuma, as a cog in the war in Ukraine.
Were Duduzile Zuma’s 237,000 Twitter followers the recipients of propaganda aimed at supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Yes, according to the Center for Information Resilience (CIR).
This is the result of a study to be published by the Center for Information Resilience and to which the Bloomberg agency had access. This independent center, based in London, specializes in disinformation and the study of social networks.
According to the study, Duduzile Zuma’s tweets supporting Russia and President Vladimir Putin were the starting point for widespread online. “She was one of the driving forces and the starting point of a campaign of tweets that were copied into the South African information space”. According to Nina Jankowicz, vice president of the CIR.
Multiplication of pro-Russian hashtags
In the past 24 hours, Duduzile Zuma has posted six tweets supporting Russia and presenting Vladimir Putin as the savior of Africans. The use of certain hashtags, such as “I Stand With Russia”, and “I support Russia” and their multiplication in copy-paste on social networks, make the CIR say that it is a malicious and coordinated strategy.
Duduzile Zuma did not respond to requests from Bloomberg. Accusers pinned her for her tweets during the July 2021 riots which left more than 350 dead in South Africa, accusing her of having encouraged the uprising.