South Africa’s embattled former President Jacob Zuma has found himself at the centre of fresh controversy after tweeting a photo of himself taking aim with a rifle.
Its meaning was unambiguous, and provocative.
A day after he had learned that a judge had issued an arrest warrant for him for failing to appear in court on corruption charges related to a multi-million dollar arms deal, Mr Zuma tweeted a photograph, on his official account, showing him aiming a rifle at an unknown target.
For a man who uses social media only rarely, and apparently carefully, the implication was clear to all South Africans.
It was a display of angry defiance against a judiciary and an “elite” which – Mr Zuma and his supporters have argued for years – is biased against him and involved in a dark conspiracy to undermine him and the “radical economic transformation” agenda that he unveiled towards the end of his corruption-riddled presidency.
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