A South African Court Has Ordered Ex-President Zuma To Jail For Contempt
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa's former President Jacob Zuma has been found guilty of contempt of court and sentenced to 15 months in prison for defying a court order to appear before an inquiry probing wide-ranging allegations of corruption during his tenure from 2009 to 2018.
Zuma was not in court for the ruling on Tuesday and has been
ordered to hand himself over within five days to a police station in his
hometown of Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province or in Johannesburg.
If Zuma fails to turn himself in within five days South
Africa's minister of police and the police commissioner have been ordered to
take him into custody within three days.
This is the first time in South Africa's history that a
former president has been sentenced to prison.
The country's apex court, the Constitutional Court, ruled
that Zuma defied an order by the country's highest court by refusing to
cooperate with the commission of inquiry, which is chaired by deputy chief
justice Raymond Zondo.
"The Constitutional Court holds that there can be no
doubt that Mr. Zuma is in contempt of court. Mr. Zuma was served with the order
and it is impossible to conclude anything other than that he was unequivocally
aware of what it required of him," said acting chief justice Sisi
Khampepe.
She added that in determining the jail sentence for Zuma,
the court found it impossible to conclude that he would comply with any other
order.
"Mr. Zuma has repeatedly reiterated that he would
rather be imprisoned than to cooperate with the commission or comply with the
order made," said Khampepe.
Zuma has previously expressed his unwillingness to appear
before the commission, which has so far heard evidence directly implicating
Zuma in wrongdoing.
In a previous 21-page letter written to Chief Justice
Mogoeng Mogoeng, which the court has described as "scandalous," Zuma
claimed that he was ready to be sent to prison.
In his letter which he released to the public, Zuma claimed
that the commission chairman, Zondo, was biased against him and that evidence
presented against him was politically motivated.
Some former Cabinet ministers, high-ranking government
officials and executives of state-owned enterprises are among witnesses who
have implicated Zuma in corruption.
Several have testified that while president Zuma allowed
members of the controversial Gupta family to influence his appointment of
Cabinet ministers and lucrative contracts at state-owned companies.
Zuma is also facing additional legal woes as he is standing
trial to face charges related to bribes that he allegedly received during South
Africa's 1999 arms procurement deal.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and his lawyers
have applied for the lead prosecutor in his case to step down because of
alleged bias against Zuma.
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