On Friday, the High Court dismissed former president Jacob Zuma’s application to stay his arrest for contempt of court. Even though he handed himself over to the police to begin his 15-month jail term, Zuma has challenged his sentence which the constitutional court will hear on Monday.
Judge Bhekisisa Mnguni, who delivered the judgment on Friday in the Pietermaritzburg High Court said: “The application is dismissed with costs.”
According to IOL, the 79-year-old Zuma denies corruption and has said that he’s the victim of a political witch-hunt.
Meanwhile, Zuma’s lawyer Dali Mpofu referred to the state capture commission and the Helen Suzman Foundation as “busy-bodies” who had no business to oppose the former president’s bid to stay out of jail, as EWN reports.
On Sunday during Zuma’s public address, he stated that sentencing him without trial and sending him to jail was like a death sentence.
“The death sentence was declared unconstitutional in South Africa in 1995. As a result of my sacrificed and those of millions of South Africans,” he said. “Sending me to jail during the height of a pandemic at my age is the same as sentencing me to death.”
“Being jailed without a trial is no different to the apartheid detention without trial,” he added.
Zuma handed himself over to the police just before midnight on Wednesday, and this was confirmed by The Jacob Zuma Foundation.
Dear South Africans and the World.
Please be advised that President Zuma has decided to comply with the incarceration order.
He is on his way to hand himself into a Correctional Services Facility in KZN.
A full statement will be issued in due course.#WenzenuZuma— JGZuma Foundation (Official) (@JGZ_Foundation) July 7, 2021
Picture: Twitter / JGZuma Foundation (Official)