SA heading towards dictatorship: Zuma Foundation

FORMER president Jacob Zuma’s Foundation last night issued a scathing statement on Zuma’s behalf, saying the country was in the process of changing from a constitutional democracy to a constitutional dictatorship.

Last night’s statement came days after the foundation announced that Zuma is set to take his fight, over his 15-month imprisonment for contempt of the Constitutional Court, to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

This, after the Constitutional Court on Friday dismissed Zuma’s application to rescind the court’s judgment.

“After the judgment of the Constitutional Court on September 17, 2021, I am more than certain of this than ever before,” Zuma said in reference to the “constitutional dictatorship”.

“Many of our people are blind to this reality at this point, because they have been successfully hypnotised by the long-standing anti-Zuma narrative,” Zuma said.

He said it was convenient that the laws of the country are “repeatedly bent and manipulated when dealing with Zuma”.

He provided three examples, saying the first was when previous public protector Thuli Madonsela made a recommendation that a commission of inquiry be set up, instead of handing over the investigation to her successor.

“Given that this was a case that had something to do with Zuma, a different process was followed,” said the foundation.

The second example, it said, was the commission chaired by Judge Raymond Zondo, in terms of the Commissions Act of 1947, with Zuma saying: “This Act is clear on what the law is, in cases of contempt of commissions.”

But Zuma said this was not done in his matter.

He also took issue with the ConCourt saying it does not have to consider international law as directed by Section 39(1)(b) of the Constitution.

Zuma’s woes started in December 2020, when the Zondo Commission approached the Concourt on an urgent basis, seeking an order to the effect that Zuma was legally obliged to comply with the commission’s directives and summonses, and appear before it to testify.

The matter was unopposed and Zuma refused to participate in the proceedings, but he was ordered to attend the commission.

When Zuma did not comply, the commission instituted contempt of court proceedings against him, and he was found to be in contempt of court on June 29.

However, two days before handing himself in to serve his prison sentence, the former president filed an application, seeking the reconsideration and rescission of the order made in the contempt proceedings.

In his application, Zuma said the order of imprisonment constituted cruel and degrading punishment, considering his personal health challenges, old age, and risks posed by Covid-19.

He also asked the court to afford him a “proper” opportunity to present evidence of whether direct imprisonment was appropriate.

But, the majority ruling on Friday, read by Justice Sisi Khampepe, said Zuma had met neither the requirements of a rescission, nor the requirements of one as governed by the common law.