SOUTH AFRICA’S former president Jacob Zuma on Sunday (4) refused to surrender to serve his 15-month jail term, as ordered by the constitutional court.
On June 29, the court sentenced Zuma to 15-month in jail for failing to appear at the corruption inquiry led by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo in February.
"No need for me to go to jail today," he told journalists at his Nkandla homestead in Kwa-Zulu Natal province, where hundreds of his supporters had gathered on Sunday (4).
"Sending me to jail during the height of a pandemic, at my age, is the same as sentencing me to death," he added.
Meanwhile, South Africa's highest court has agreed to hear Zuma’s challenge against his sentence, giving him a reprieve from turning himself over to the police.
Zuma, 79, is accused of enabling the plunder of state assets during his stay in office from 2009 to 2018.
The court had given him time till Sunday to turn himself over to the police to serve his jail term. It will now hear his plea against the jail term on July 12.
Zuma had asked the court to cancel its ruling, citing his age, unspecified medical conditions and the upcoming third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic as a threat to his life.
Zuma was ousted by his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, in 2018. Since then, he has faced many legal trials to bring him to justice on corruption-related allegations during and before his tenure as president.
These include Zondo’s inquiry and a separate court case relating to a $2 billion (£1.4bn) arms deal in 1999, when Zuma was deputy president.
So far, Zuma has maintained that he is the victim of a political witch hunt, and that Zondo is biased against him.
The Zondo Commission is examining allegations of high-level graft that involves three Indian-born businessmen, the brothers Atul, Ajay and Rajesh Gupta, when Zuma was in power.
Allegations against Zuma include that he allowed the Gupta brothers to plunder state resources and influence policy.
Scott Bessent
