ZUMA JAILED

…ex president found guilty of contempt of court, sentenced to 15 months in jail

JOHANNESBURG

- The Constitutional Court yesterday found former President Jacob Zuma guilty of contempt of court and sentenced him to 15 months' imprisonment.

And Zuma's daughter, Duduzile Zuma, has indicated that her father will comply with the 15-month jail term and hand himself over to the Nkandla police station.

In a tweet following the apex court's judgment she said she had spoken to her father and that he was in high spirits and had "no fear."

The apex court also ordered that Zuma pay the legal costs spent by the State Capture Inquiry in bringing the matter before the court. The costs order was made on a punitive scale.

The ruling comes after Zuma defied the Constitutional Court's orders that he appear before the State Capture Inquiry and answer non-incriminating questions about his nine years in office.

The inquiry then brought a contempt of court application against the former president. It argued he should be jailed for two years for his multiple acts of contempt against it, the country's highest court and the judiciary itself.

Zuma did not participate in the inquiry's initial Constitutional Court application to compel him to testify before Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, after he walked out of the commission in November 2020.

He also did not participate in the subsequent contempt case against him, nor did he comply with the court's directives that he file an affidavit detailing what sanction he believed he should face.

Instead, he wrote a letter to outgoing Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, in which he compared the Constitutional Court to the apartheid government and said he was willing to become a "prisoner of the Constitutional Court."

Delivering the court's judgment yesterday acting Chief Justice Sisi Khampepe said there was "no doubt" that Zuma was in contempt of court.

She said the court was left with no choice but to respond when its ability to uphold the Constitution was "besieged."

Khampepe added the constitutional safeguards of the judiciary were "undermined so egregiously" and the court had to respond.

Noting Zuma's attacks on the Constitutional Court and the judiciary, the country's most senior judge (while Mogoeng is on extended leave) said never had "the authority and legitimacy of the Constitutional Court been subjected against these kinds of attacks." -

Phill Magakoe/Pool via REUTERS Former South African President Jacob Zuma stands in the dock after recess in his corruption trial in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.