Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, 39, is South Africa’s March and March movement founder and former Vuma FM presenter. Explore her KwaMashu roots, husband, children, Vuma lawsuit, and 2026 news.
Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma is one of South Africa’s most talked-about and polarising public figures — a radio presenter turned civic activist whose March and March movement has made her the face of a nationwide campaign against undocumented foreign nationals. Born on 6 July 1986 in KwaMashu, KwaZulu-Natal, she built a 15-year career in radio across some of South Africa’s biggest stations before becoming a national household name through a movement that began as an online conversation and transformed into one of the most prominent civic campaigns in the country.
Now 39, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma is navigating one of the most significant periods of her public life. She is fighting a legal battle against Vuma FM following the controversial non-renewal of her contract in July 2025. She leads a movement that has held national protests, drawn hundreds of thousands of supporters, and attracted formal political party overtures — which she has publicly rejected.
On 25 May 2026, just four days before this biography is written, she held what she described as a “State of the Nation Address” media briefing in Umhlanga, Durban, restating her commitment to civic activism over political ambition. Her story is one of reinvention, resilience, and the complicated intersection of media, movement-building, and South African identity politics.
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Quick Facts About Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma (also credited as Jacinta MaNgobese-Zuma) |
| Date of Birth | 6 July 1986 |
| Age | 39 years old |
| Birthplace | KwaMashu, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
| Nationality | South African |
| Profession | Radio Presenter, Podcaster, Civic Activist, Movement Leader |
| Education | Supply Chain Management, University of KwaZulu-Natal |
| Husband | Xolani Zuma (lawyer, married August 2024) |
| Children | Adunyiswe (daughter); Lwandile (son) |
| Former Employer | Vuma FM (2019–2025) |
| Movement | March and March (founder and leader) |
| Podcast | Zoom in with Jacinta MaNgobese Zuma (YouTube, post-2025) |
| Estimated Net Worth | ~R1–3 million |
Early Life and Family
Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma was born on 6 July 1986 in KwaMashu, a township north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal — a community shaped by the rhythms of Zulu cultural life, the legacy of apartheid’s forced removals, and the political intensity of KZN’s contested history.
Her early life was marked by circumstances that required early self-reliance: her mother had her at a young age, and her biological father separated from her mother before she was born, his family having fled the area due to political violence. She never met her biological father. She was raised primarily by her grandparents — a formative experience she has described as foundational to her resilience and her commitment to community.
From her school days in KwaMashu, she described herself as a natural leader who could not avoid stepping into frontline roles. “I can’t say anything motivated me to champion citizens’ rights,” she told IOL in August 2025. “From my school days, I’ve had leadership roles that required me to stand up for other learners. Even at church, I led the youth — and everywhere else it was the same.” Those early patterns of instinctive community leadership anticipate the activist she would become decades later.
Education
Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma studied supply chain management at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Durban. It was while studying at UKZN that she stumbled into radio — attending an audition at the campus radio station and being selected as a presenter, an experience that immediately made clear where her real vocation lay.
Her academic qualification in supply chain management, while not the field she ultimately pursued, reflects an early pragmatic engagement with the mechanics of how things are organised and moved — a set of skills that would prove surprisingly relevant in building a civic movement from scratch.
Radio Career: From Campus to Vuma FM
Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma’s radio career spans approximately 15 years across several of KwaZulu-Natal’s major stations. After her campus radio debut at UKZN, she moved to Vibe 94.7 FM in Durban in 2009. The following year, she joined Inanda FM. In 2011, she joined Gagasi FM as both a producer and on-air talent — contributing to the popular Alex & The Morning Crew show with Alex Mthiyane and Kini Shandu, and eventually hosting her own weekday slot called Fresh Start.
Her most prominent media chapter began in 2019 when she joined Vuma FM, a KwaZulu-Natal commercial station with a substantial urban Zulu-speaking listenership. There she presented the weekday mid-morning show Cruise with Jacinta Ngobese — a slot that gave her a consistent daily platform to build both a loyal audience and a public persona. The show combined entertainment with community engagement, and Jacinta’s direct, warm presenting style made it one of Vuma FM’s most identifiable properties.
She was nominated for the Ladies in Media Awards (LIMA) in Ghana in March 2024, in the African Female Radio Entertainment Show Host and Voice-Over Artist of the Year categories, and won Best Radio Presenter Female at the KZN Entertainment Awards in December 2020 and Best Radio Presenter and Best Influencer at the Sebenza Awards.
In 2023, she was selected by UKZN to participate in the prestigious International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States — a US government-sponsored programme that identifies emerging leaders from around the world for immersive professional development.
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The Vuma FM Exit and Legal Battle (2025)
In July 2025, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma’s contract with Vuma FM was not renewed — a development that erupted publicly and immediately. Vuma FM maintained that the non-renewal was a standard management decision, with presenter contracts reviewed annually at discretion, and explicitly stated it was “not a dismissal.” The station denied that any external political pressure influenced the decision, and the Department of Health similarly denied any involvement following speculation that her increasingly prominent and controversial civic activism may have made her presence on a commercial radio station untenable.
Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma rejected Vuma FM’s framing and found the absence of a clear explanation unacceptable. She instructed her legal team to take action against the station for failing to provide reasons for the non-renewal, filing court papers in August 2025. The legal battle remains ongoing as of May 2026. The controversy made national news, with TimesLIVE, IOL, Briefly News, and other outlets running extensive coverage under headlines like “Here’s why Jacinta ‘MaNgobese’ Zuma is no longer on Vuma FM.”
Following her departure from Vuma FM, she launched a YouTube podcast called Zoom in with Jacinta MaNgobese Zuma — maintaining a media presence and a platform for her views independent of any broadcaster.
March and March: From Social Media to National Movement
The movement that has made Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma a national figure is March and March — a civic campaign she founded that campaigns against undocumented foreign nationals in South Africa, demands mass deportations, stricter border controls, and the reservation of public services and township economic opportunities exclusively for South African citizens. She has described its origins as entirely grassroots: “The group originated spontaneously after citizens urged her to transition from online advocacy to physical activism,” she told journalists in Umhlanga on 25 May 2026.
March and March has organised nationwide protests that have attracted significant turnout across KwaZulu-Natal and other provinces, confronting what supporters describe as the failure of successive South African governments to enforce immigration law. The movement has also drawn serious criticism — from foreign governments, from South African civil society organisations, and from commentators who argue that its campaigns have encouraged or provided cover for xenophobic attacks on African migrants. Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma has consistently denied encouraging violence, stating that her movement’s demands are directed at government and at legal enforcement mechanisms, not at individual foreign nationals.
The movement has been charged alongside the MK Party and Operation Dudula in at least one legal proceeding — a development that has not slowed its activities. In March 2026, the Sunday Tribune published a one-year anniversary profile of March and March, describing its nationwide reach and the debates it had generated about South African identity, sovereignty, and economic anxiety.
Personal Life: Husband and Children
Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma married lawyer Xolani Zuma in August 2024 in a celebrated wedding that began at her home in KwaMashu E section and concluded at Princess Magogo Stadium in KwaMashu — a venue choice that reflected both her community roots and the scale of her public profile. The ceremony attracted widespread media coverage and social media attention. She has two children: a daughter named Adunyiswe and a son named Lwandile.
She has spoken warmly and consistently in interviews about her identity as a mother, describing it as central to her sense of purpose both personally and as an activist. “She is passionate about life, and loves being a mother,” IOL reported in August 2025.
Latest News: May 2026 Media Briefing and Political Party Overtures
The most recent chapter of Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma’s public life has been defined by the question of her political future. As South Africa’s local government elections approach in November 2026, speculation has mounted about whether she could join ActionSA and emerge as the party’s eThekwini mayoral candidate — comparisons drawn between her trajectory and that of Xolani Khumalo, who moved from anti-drug TV activism into party politics. Questions about potential IFP alignment have also circulated.
On 25 May 2026 — four days before this biography is published — she held a media briefing at Umhlanga, Durban, that she described as a “State of the Nation Address.” She disclosed that she had received between seven and eight formal invitations to join traditional political structures and had rejected all of them.
“Tomorrow if I meet with the IFP, people will say it is an IFP thing,” she said. She insisted that entering the legislative architecture was impossible while simultaneously fighting against it, and that converting March and March into a registered political party — a course some supporters have advocated — would violate the core confidence of her constituency. She vowed to continue the movement until the government took what she called “practical action” on illegal immigration.
Awards and Recognition
- Best Radio Presenter Female — KZN Entertainment Awards, December 2020
- Best Radio Presenter and Best Influencer — Sebenza Awards
- Ladies in Media Awards (LIMA) Nominee — African Female Radio Entertainment Show Host and Voice-Over Artist of the Year, Ghana, March 2024
- International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) participant — United States, 2023
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Net Worth
Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma’s estimated net worth is approximately R1–3 million, reflecting 15 years of earnings from commercial radio broadcasting, event organising, and media work. Her Vuma FM contract would have represented a significant portion of her income during the 2019–2025 period.
The legal battle against Vuma FM, the transition to independent podcasting, and the significant time invested in leading March and March — an unmonetised civic movement — have all influenced her current financial position. She does not appear to have significant business investments beyond her media and activist work.
Wrapping Up
Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma’s biography is ultimately a story about voice — how to find it, how to use it, and what happens when you refuse to give it up. She grew up without a father, raised by grandparents in a KZN township, built a media career on sheer determination and on-air talent, and then, at the height of that career, chose a path that made her simultaneously more famous and more controversial than any radio slot could have. Her legal fight against Vuma FM and her civic activism through March and March represent two expressions of the same fundamental refusal: to be silenced without explanation or consent.
At 39, with a legal battle ongoing, a movement drawing national attention, political parties courting her, and local government elections approaching in November 2026, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma is operating at the most complex and consequential point of her public life. Whatever her next chapter holds, she has made it clear she will write it on her own terms.
People Also Ask
Who is Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma?
Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma is a South African radio presenter, civic activist, and founder of the March and March movement. Born on 6 July 1986 in KwaMashu, KwaZulu-Natal, she presented the Cruise mid-morning show on Vuma FM from 2019 to 2025. Following her controversial exit from Vuma FM, she became a national figure through March and March — a campaign against undocumented foreign nationals in South Africa demanding mass deportations and stricter border enforcement.
Who is Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma’s husband?
Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma married lawyer Xolani Zuma in August 2024 in a widely covered ceremony that began at her home in KwaMashu E section and concluded at Princess Magogo Stadium in KwaMashu. She has two children: a daughter, Adunyiswe, and a son, Lwandile.
Why did Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma leave Vuma FM?
Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma’s contract at Vuma FM was not renewed in July 2025. Vuma FM stated the decision was a standard annual management review and not a dismissal, denying that political pressure played any role. Jacinta disputed this framing and instructed her legal team to take the station to court for failing to provide reasons for the non-renewal. The case was ongoing as of May 2026. She subsequently launched a YouTube podcast, Zoom in with Jacinta MaNgobese Zuma, to maintain an independent media presence.
Will Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma join a political party?
As of 25 May 2026, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma has publicly rejected all political party overtures, stating she has received between seven and eight formal invitations to join political structures and has turned them all down. She stated at a media briefing in Umhlanga that “entering the legislative architecture is impossible while simultaneously fighting against it,” and that converting March and March into a registered party would violate the trust of her constituency. Local government elections are scheduled for November 2026.
