An old image of the trial over the Zuma assassination plot is circulating online again

This article is more than one year old.
Published on July 23, 2019 at 17:18
2 min read
By AFP South Africa, Tendai DUBE

In December 2012, four men appeared in court on charges of treason and terrrorism after being arrested on suspicion of planning to kill then South African president Jacob Zuma and other top African National Congress (ANC) leaders. An image of the men’s first court appearance has resurfaced in light of fresh claims from Zuma himself that he survived numerous assassination attempts. But the photograph does not, as some social media posts suggest, show recent events.

In one July 17 post, which we’ve archived here, the image appears alongside a caption that reads: “These man are standing trail for plotting to Kill #JacobZuma & other senior ANC leaders. They appeared in court yesterday.The silence of Media is sickening.”

A screenshot taken on July 18, 2019 of the misleading Facebook post

The same photo, with a similar caption, can be found in this archived tweet from July 17 which was retweeted more than 900 times.

However, a reverse image search for the picture shows that it dates back to December 18, 2012 when Johan Prinsloo, Hein Boonzaaier, Martin Keevy and Mark Trollip first appeared in court on charges related to treason and terrrorism for allegedly plotting to kill Zuma and other senior ANC members.

You can see the men wearing the same clothing in different pictures published by local media here and here in December 2012.

A screenshot taken on July 22, 2019 of an article published by the Sowetan

A screenshot taken on July 22, 2019 of an article published by the Mail & Guardian

As reported by AFP, Prinsloo and Trollip were convicted of high treason for plotting to kill Zuma and sentenced to eight years in prison. Keevy was found mentally unfit to stand trial and charges against Boonzaaier were dropped due to insufficient evidence.

Prinsloo became the last to be sentenced in November 2014, so the misleading post that claims “they appeared in court yesterday” -- at the time of publication, July 16, 2019 -- is incorrect. It is also incorrect to claim that the media were silent on the matter as numerous articles were published between 2012 and 2014 following the men’s court appearances.

Last week Zuma dismissed multiple graft allegations against him, telling a judicial inquiry that he was the victim of conspiracies, years of "character assassination" and plots to kill him -- read AFP’s report here.

Zuma is accused of overseeing mass looting of state assets during his nine-year tenure before being ousted by the ruling ANC party in 2018 and replaced by his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa.

Zuma testified at the commission that he had survived many assassination attempts, from poison to a bid to kill him at a local music festival.

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