Zuma’s home to be guarded by MK vets as arrest looms

FORMER president Jacob Zuma’s supporters are preparing to head back to Nkandla to guard his home and thwart his looming arrest as expectations mount that the Constitutional Court will order his jailing, setting the SAPS to arrest him.

Late last week the court heard from the Zondo Commission, which is probing allegations of state capture between 2009 and 2018, how Zuma defied its ruling of late January this year and refused to appear to testify.

Through advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, the commission said Zuma not only defied a legally binding instruction, but went on to insult the judges and the courts. As such, the commission asked the court to jail the former president for two years, because his defiance was a grave matter.

Now those close to Zuma anticipate that the court would consider the time constraints of the Zondo Commission and hand down a judgment soon. One inside source said they expect the judgment in the second week of April.

With that in mind, the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA) is planning to send back the battalion that was first deployed in mid-February this year.

The association’s spokesperson, Carl Niehaus, said full plans about how their members would be deployed would be discussed in the coming week when the national executive committee (NEC) of the MKMVA meet.

Another Zuma loyalist who went to Nkandla to guard Zuma’s home, Andile Hlatshwayo of uBumbano Lokuthula, an organisation based in Durban, said he would also be personally going back to back the MK vets.

Hlatshwayo said that in addition to bringing some of his members, who in early 2020 brought the northern KZN town of Ladysmith to a standstill, he has mobilised Zulu regiments from Eshowe and Nkandla to join them.