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South Africa’s top court has said former President Jacob Zuma should be jailed for challenging his order to attend an investigation into allegations of corruption in his presidency.
“The only appropriate sentence is a direct imprisonment order lasting 15 months,” the constitutional court said Tuesday.
This is the first time a former South African president has received a prison sentence since apartheid ended. The case was the main test for justice and investigation. Zuma “wanted to set aside the rule of law, harm it and demolish it in many ways,” the court said.
Zuma must deliver it to the police within five days. If he fails to do so, the police will have to take “all necessary steps” within three days to get him to jail, the court said.
The court said Zuma is in contempt of the court and “responds to some direct attacks and calculated and malicious efforts [Zuma] to challenge its legitimacy ”. He added: “The strength of the judiciary is being tested… The judicial process has never been so threatened.”
The former president ignored the order before the corruption inquiry commission and wanted to imprison South Africa’s deputy chief justice and Raymond Zondo for his challenge.
A long-standing investigation into what Zuma claims to have helped Guptas, a well-known business family, secure state contracts and determine policy was known as the “state capture” scandal. Guptas and Zuma deny misbehaving.
Zuma was forced to step down in 2018 due to corruption scandals and the investigation has become one of the most powerful symbols of the cleansing of Zuma’s heir Zyril Ramaphosa, as well as its limitations and knots. “His conduct flies in the face of his duty as president” to defend the rule of law, the Constitutional Court said.
Zuma was installed a few weeks before the removal of power by order of South African public protection or government ombudsmen. Since then, dozens of witnesses have accused the former president of systematic corruption, including manipulating ministerial appointments and contracts in favor of the Indian-born family business empire.
Zuma made a brief appearance before the interrogation in 2019 to deny involvement in corruption and to claim that his accusers were part of a “push to get out of the Western-backed scene”.
On the next appearance, however, he refused to answer questions and took a walk and did not return to the witness stand.
The former president has also refused to contact the constitutional court, refusing to respond when asked by judges what sentence would be most appropriate if he sees that they should be jailed for him.
“It’s not that I challenge our law, but some illegal judges who have left their constitutional position for political expediency,” Zuma said, referring to Zondo and judges of the constitutional court.
Zuma, who was imprisoned in the notorious apartheid prison on Robben Island and an ANC intelligence chief in the fight against apartheid, said he would rather face jail than comply with the order to return to interrogation.
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