Former South African president Jacob Zuma on Saturday appeared to have won a reprieve from imminent imprisonment on contempt of court charges after the country’s most senior judges agreed to hear his challenge to a 15-month jail sentence awarded last week.
Police were ordered by the South African Constitutional Court to arrest the 79-year-old if he did not surrender to authorities by yesterday after he failed to appear before a corruption inquiry earlier this year.
Zuma was ousted as president amid multiple graft scandals in 2018 after nine years in power, and has consistently refused to cooperate with judges investigating wrongdoing during his rule.
In the past few days, the veteran politician has sought to rally political support, particularly in his stronghold province of KwaZulu-Natal, where he appeared briefly in public on Saturday, but his efforts to spark any broader protests at his impending arrest have so far failed.
A small crowd gathered outside Zuma’s homestead of Nkandla.
Supporters included about two dozen women who said they had traveled more than 300km overnight from the neighboring Eastern Cape Province.
“We support Zuma and we want to know what is going to happen with him, which is why we are here,” 43-year-old Cecilia Nongce said, wearing a blue-and-red traditional Nguni blanket to ward off the cold.
A group of other supporters arrived in two mini-buses waving African National Congress flags and wearing white T-shirts with prints saying: “Wenzeni uZuma,” Zulu for “What has Zuma done?”
Analysts in South Africa were surprised by the court’s decision to consider the former president’s challenge to its own decision.
“If Zuma goes to prison, we can say we have the rule of law in South Africa. If he doesn’t, then we don’t. There is no new evidence, so this means the system is being bent to fit the politics, and people everywhere will be very disappointed by that,” said Ralph Mathekga, an author and political commentator.
In its judgement last week, the court said that Zuma had repeatedly reiterated that he would rather be imprisoned than to cooperate with the corruption inquiry.
Zuma then submitted a 30-page statement, accusing judges of “exasperation” and suggesting that the court “reassess whether it has acted within the constitution.”
The statement also said that Zuma’s health would be at risk in prison because he would not be able to receive the care that he needs and might catch COVID-19.
Scores of witnesses have described what appears to have been widespread corruption and misadministration under Zuma’s rule, but he has testified only once, in July 2019, before staging a walkout days later.
He denies all wrongdoing.
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