What does Jacob Zuma have in common with a group of African students living in Canada?

They’re both out in the cold?

No, the answer is that Zuma’s R61m — no wait, make that R63m — defamation claim against media organisations is being run through a website that purports to have been set up by “homesick” students in Alberta, Canada.

This emerged yesterday when Zuma began a game of legal cat-and-mouse with radio station Highveld Stereo, upping his claim against the station after it rebroadcast a satirical song, I Am Zuma, that had already made it the target of a R5m claim.

A press release from “The Office of Jacob Zuma” announced the raising of the stakes, saying he had told his legal team to increase his claim against Highveld to R7m — in addition to the R56m being claimed from 12 other organisations and individuals.

Highveld station manager Ravi Naidoo said last night the station had not yet received a claim, “but if there’s anything to defend, we’ll defend it”.

This may be because, as The Office of Jacob Zuma points out, the Highveld claim was held back by a day to increase it.

The press release asks that inquiries be directed to an e-mail address, press@jacobzuma.com.

And this is where the Canadian connection comes in.

The e-mail address is linked to a website, www.jacobzuma.com, whose home page is festooned with an African sunset.

“Office of Jacob Zuma” declares the page title, but clicking on the “about us” link reveals that it is a site “created by African students living in Canada”.

“We decided to put together a website dedicated to educating people about African culture and lifestyle.

“You’ll find contributions on topics ranging from holidays and cooking to sports and the economy,” it says.

Under the “contact us” link there is only an address: 123 Main Street, Hometown, Alberta.

But a quick “who is” lookup, which enables anyone to see the registration details of a website, reveals that the site is indeed registered to Jacob Zuma, Forest Town, Johannesburg.

It even gives a phone number (555-555-5555) and an e-mail address — gedle@zumamediatrial.com. Gedleyihlekisa is Zuma’s middle name.

The zumamediatrial.com domain name is registered to Liesl Gottert, who produced a documentary, The Zuma Media Trial, which alleged Zuma was the victim of a trial by media, orchestrated by his opponents in the African National Congress.

With acknowledgement to Kevin O’Grady and Business Day.