News24 | Marching for tenders: Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, husband score millions in state contracts

• March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma and her husband have close ties to political actors in KwaZulu-Natal.
• Both anti-illegal immigration leaders have companies doing business with the government.
• These revelations come amid the organisation’s stated claim of taking on the state’s apparent lack of immigration enforcement.
• For secure, anonymous communication with News24’s investigations team, click here.

March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma and her husband, Xolani Zuma, have received millions through government contracts since 2021 – this amid the organisation’s attacks on the state about immigration laws and regulations.

Most of the business is with the KwaZulu-Natal government, with contracts awarded to their company, XJ Family Enterprise, and to Xolani Zuma’s law firm. They are both directors of XJ Family Enterprise.

Ngobese-Zuma is March and March’s leader, while her husband is the CEO of its spin-off, SA First Forum, and legal head of both organisations.

Apart from a range of provincial contracts, and at least one national contract, the couple’s family business has also been handed a three-year, multimillion-rand service contract with the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

March and March is a populist group leading public marches and campaigns to force the government to expel undocumented migrants from South Africa. Both Durban and Soweto were engulfed in violence this week as anti-migrant sentiment reached a boiling point.

Dastardly threats against News24's Khaya Koko.

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This followed widespread disinformation about a Constitutional Court judgment on the administrative processing of asylum seekers.

Ngobese-Zuma refused to respond to detailed questions about her dealings with the state, while Xolani Zuma said he would only do so after this article’s publication.

Tender bonanza

According to National Treasury procurement data, state tender portals, and government expenditure reports, the couple and their enterprises have received government contracts to the value of almost R12 million.

According to the KZN government’s capital expenditure projection for the 2026/27 financial year, ending 31 March 2027, the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development granted XJ Family Enterprise a 36-month contract for “farmer support and development”.

Ngobese-Zuma and Xolani Zuma are the only directors of XJ Family Enterprise, which was registered in September 2024, less than a year before the farmer support tender was advertised in June 2025, company records show.

The allocated budget for the family business in the 2026/27 financial year is R3.5 million, increasing to R10.5 million over three years, the expenditure report details.

Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma shared questions News24 sent her on her Facebook page, with the reporter's personal cellphone number visible.

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It is unclear what agricultural expertise XJ Family Enterprise or its directors have. Xolani Zuma did, however, purchase a farm in KZN for R2 million in 2022. The property was secured by a R1.7-million bank bond with ABSA Home Loans, according to the deeds office.

On Wednesday, KZN agriculture and rural development spokesperson Vusi Khumalo acknowledged News24’s questions, saying he would respond. The questions included the selection criteria for the farmer support programme, as neither Ngobese-Zuma nor her husband was in the agricultural industry.

The department did not respond at the time of publication.

Meanwhile, procurement data from Treasury show that Zuma and Partners Incorporated, Xolani Zuma’s law firm, of which he is the sole director, received “legal services payments” between the 2024/25 financial year and the current 2026/27 reporting period.

Xolani Zuma cotinues receiving state contracts, including in the current financial year.

Graphic: Sharlene Rood/News24

The payments were from KwaZulu-Natal’s Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, across seven transactions, the bulk of which were in 2025/26, totalling just over R1 million.

Further, Ngobese-Zuma, through her events company Sodelwa Trading, was paid R118 000 from the provincial Department of Sport and Recreation for an advertising contract in the 2021/22 financial year, according to National Treasury procurement data.

Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma's payment from the KZN government.

Graphic: Sharlene Rood/News24

Sodelwa Trading also received a R20 000 payment in the 2020/21 financial year from the national Department of Sports, Arts and Culture as part of the Covid-19 relief funds, according to the department’s support report.

Her company also does business with municipalities, including an events management contract with Msunduzi Municipality, which includes Pietermaritzburg.

Right of reply

This week, Ngobese-Zuma did not answer News24’s questions, saying, “I hope you can prove this, or we will sue you until you walk in underwear. Write your story.”

Xolani Zuma, for his part, asked not to comment at this stage, adding that he would be willing to grant News24 a sit-down interview after this article is published to explain the nature of his business with the government.

Following News24’s written requests for comment, Ngobese-Zuma published the correspondence on social media, including the reporter’s cellphone number. This led to a series of threats, including death threats levelled against the journalist.

Another threatening message following Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma's doxxing.

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Ngobese-Zuma was served with a letter of demand, and although she removed the contact details, she refused to apologise or ask her supporters not to threaten the media. Media24 is considering further legal action.

The rise of a social media figure

Ngobese-Zuma’s current and former friends and associates traced the rise of March and March to her time administering a public Facebook group – around 2008/09 – that rated the physical appearances of Durban’s tertiary students.

The Facebook group “031’s Hottest” – which one insider described as the “Durban FHM”, a play on the British lifestyle magazine that held the annual “100 Sexiest Women in the World” – was her first exposure to the power of social media that would later fuel her contentious and polarising activism.

Covid-19 Relief.

Graphic: Sharlene Rood/News24.

The “031” in the group’s name is the telephone area code for Durban, the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, and the surrounding neighbourhoods.

“Every Friday, the group would have the ‘who’s hot and who’s not’ challenge. If we all played our cards right, the group would probably have made us all a lot of money,” one former associate joked.

Political connections

Ngobese-Zuma has, since September 2019, been a director of African Global Networks, a nonprofit company (NPC) that regularly organises events and summits in collaboration with the government, including with the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities and its minister, Sindisiwe Chikunga.

In August, the NPC hosted the Status of Women summit, an event Ngobese-Zuma addressed, and was backed by the UN Women South Africa office, the African Union Development Agency, and the South African government.

Ngobese-Zuma is also a close friend of Thembinkosi Ngcobo, the former head of eThekwini Municipality’s parks, recreation, and culture department.

Ngcobo is a former ANC branch leader in eThekwini’s ward 35, which covers the Durban North area, where Ngobese-Zuma and her husband live.

In July last year, shortly after Ngobese-Zuma was fired as a mid-morning presenter on Vuma FM, Ngcobo shared a friendly social media photo of himself with the March and March leader, writing that she had called to “directly” inform him of her dismissal.

Thembinkosi Ngcobo, left, with Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma.

Instagram/thembinkosingcobo

Ngcobo wrote that Ngobese-Zuma referred to him as “Pholops”, a friendly version of “Mapholoba”, the praise name for the Ngcobo clan in line with Nguni culture.

Ngcobo left the ANC after being fired from eThekwini in June 2021, alleging in successive social media posts and podcast interviews that senior party leaders worked with the DA to oust him. He is now a prominent MK Party leader in KZN.

His firing followed the South African Local Government Bargaining Council’s finding that he was guilty of misconduct for failing to report a “fraudulent” R140 000 municipal payment in 2015.

In supporting Ngobese-Zuma after her dismissal last year, Ngcobo accused provincial ANC leaders, whom he called “former liberators”, of being behind his friend’s firing, drawing comparisons with his own ousting.

“[It] would seem that our former liberators are investing substantial amounts of public resources to spread certain messages to the public using various publicity platforms – including Vuma FM – Jacinta’s employers,” Ngcobo alleged.

Another March and March sympathiser hurling insults.

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Xolani Zuma, on the other hand, is a former student leader of the ANC-aligned South African Students Congress (Sasco) and served on the University of Zululand’s student representative council from 2005 to 2007, including as SRC president in 2006/07.

During his tenure as SRC president, Zuma faced charges of bringing the university into disrepute for allegedly leading an “illegal strike”, which halted learning after Sasco claimed Zululand was offering unregistered degrees.

At their wedding in 2024, Xolani and Jacinta had former KZN premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube as a guest. Dube-Ncube was previously in the KZN cabinet as the provincial head of Cogta, Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, and the Finance department.

Cult following

Two close associates of Ngobese-Zuma said the head of March and March was not “overtly political” nor did she come from a political home in her earlier years, but they could see how she entered the contentious terrain.

The associates, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Ngobese-Zuma’s ties with senior KZN politicians propelled her into the political scene.

“So, I think being close with these guys [politicians] allowed her to enter the space, including getting MC gigs. Jacinta also has an events company as well,” said one insider.

Another added that Ngobese-Zuma’s radio career gave her a larger following outside her work by streaming her on-air broadcasts to her Facebook audience.

“So, that was one of the first components of how she created this cult following. Jacinta really did cool shit on the radio and stayed engaged with her audience, who, in turn, stayed engaged with her,” the source added.