By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former president and MK Party leader Jacob Zuma has been linked to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, following fresh disclosures from the US Justice Department.
Epstein had been arrested in 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking minors.
He died later that year in a New York jail while awaiting trial, in what authorities ruled a suicide.
Epstein had previously been convicted in 2008 in Florida after pleading guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor.
He served just over a year in jail under a controversial plea deal and was later required to register as a sex offender.
US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Friday that the department was releasing more than 3 million pages of documents and more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images. The files, posted to a Department of Justice (DOJ) website, include some of the several million pages of records that officials said were withheld from an initial release of documents in December.
The latest trove of documents shows Epstein arranged an intimate dinner for Zuma in London during his 2010 UK state visit, hosted at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II.
The correspondence refers to Epstein’s associate arranging the event and inviting a Russian model to attend.
Zuma’s foundation described the reports as a smear campaign and accused the media of unethical reporting.
Another file shows an email exchange between Epstein and billionaire Elon Musk, where Musk thanked Epstein for inviting him to Little Saint James.
“The invitation is much appreciated, but a peaceful island experience is the opposite of what I’m looking for,” Musk told Epstein on Christmas Day in 2012. Musk claimed to have been “working to the edge of sanity.”
Messages apparently to Microsoft founder Bill Gates were also among those released on Friday. In an email draft, Epstein alleged Gates had engaged in extramarital affairs.
In the mail, Epstein wrote that his ties to Gates included “helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts, with married women.”
The Gates Foundation denied the statements, telling The New York Times, “These claims — from a proven, disgruntled liar — are absolutely absurd and completely false.”