Duduzane Zuma swaps Dubai luxury for South African politics

Duduzane Zuma, son of former South African President Jacob Zuma, shifts gears from a luxurious Dubai lifestyle to launch the All Game Changers party. Known for his affinity for opulence, Zuma, 41, seeks to reshape South Africa’s political landscape. Focused on economic growth and steering away from a “welfare state,” Zuma advocates for youth empowerment. Despite challenges and family ties to the ANC, he envisions a business-friendly future, opposing unnecessary welfare grants and championing free education. Zuma, currently excluded from the South African banking system, insists on his innocence amid legal controversies.

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By S’thembile Cele and Loni Prinsloo

One of former South African President Jacob Zuma’s sons, who is known for his love of luxury cars and lavish lifestyle, has entered the political fray and founded a business-friendly party known as the All Game Changers.

After working in Dubai for eight years, Duduzane Zuma said he’s “made his money” and lived the high life — skydiving, jet skiing and sailing on a yacht. While he could have easily stayed in the United Arab Emirates, he said he returned home to focus on helping South Africa tackle its myriad challenges, including growing the economy and moving it away from becoming what he described as a “welfare state.”

Duduzane Zuma, leader of the All Game Changers party, during an interview in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. xxx Photographer: Leon Sadiki/Bloomberg

“There’s a lot of things that are not working and we are focused on dealing with petty party politics,” and that has to change, Zuma, 41, said in an interview in Bloomberg’s Johannesburg offices on Tuesday. “Our focus is on the youth of this country.”

The younger Zuma revealed his interest in politics when he indicated he’d challenge President Cyril Ramaphosa for the leadership of the ruling African National Congress in 2022, but he failed to garner enough support to enter the contest. He said he no longer believes the ANC is best-positioned to take the country forward, and that more business people should enter politics.

Read more: Duduzane Zuma: Vociferously “pro-business” – the fix SA desperately needs

His new party will face an uphill battle to make inroads among the support base of more established rivals, and it doesn’t currently appear among the 360 parties registered with the Electoral Commission of South Africa that can participate in this year’s national elections. It also can’t count on support from Jacob Zuma, who’s cut ties with the ANC and pledged his support for the recently founded uMkhonto WeSizwe party.

Duduzane Zuma, who describes the All Game Changers as a “movement,” said he opposed the payment of welfare grants to citizens who weren’t elderly or marginalized and that he favored free education for the youth. The private sector needs to contribute toward operating state-owned companies, such as power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. and logistics company Transnet SOC Ltd., though a government structure should have the ultimate say over how they’re run, he said.

Prior to moving to Dubai, Duduzane Zuma worked for — and was in business with — members of the Gupta family, who were friends with his father and were implicated by a judicial commission of inquiry in the looting of billions of rand from state coffers — a process know locally as state capture. The Guptas left South Africa for Dubai shortly before the ANC forced Jacob Zuma to step down as president in 2018 to stem a loss of support and most of their businesses, which ranged from mining to technology companies, have been closed or placed into business rescue.

Zuma, who like his father and the Guptas have denied wrongdoing, currently doesn’t have access to the South African banking system — a restriction he says was his main motivation for moving to the UAE.

“I am innocent, I don’t know how many times I need to say it,” he said. “I have been arrested, falsely so. They still need to answer why I was arrested. They still haven’t done so.”