Former South African President Jacob Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison on Tuesday for contempt after he defied a court order to appear at an inquiry investigating corruption during his nine years in office.
Zuma, 79, was not in court for the ruling but was ordered to surrender to police in five days either in his hometown of Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province or in Johannesburg or officials will arrest him.
It’s the first time in South Africa’s history that a former president has been sentenced to prison. “Finally, Zuma will find himself where he belongs – behind bars,” opposition lawmaker Herman Mashaba said in a statement.
“This is indeed a victory for all South Africans that have become gatvol (fed up) with those who have looted our country with impunity,” he said. “The judgment is equally a victory for the rule of law in South Africa, once again serving to highlight the independence of our judiciary. This is a central pillar of our hard-won democracy.”
Zuma failed to appear at February’s inquiry being run by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, and its lawyers asked the Constitutional Court to intervene.
The Constitutional Court, the country’s highest, found that Zuma not only refused to cooperate with the inquiry commission but also tried to weaken the legitimacy of the commission and the judiciary by mounting a “smear campaign.”
“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,” acting Chief Justice Sisi Khampepe said in the court’s ruling.
Rather than appearing at the inquiry, Zuma “elected instead to make provocative, unmeritorious and vituperative statements that constituted a calculated effort to impugn the integrity of the judiciary,” the ruling continued.
Zuma has denied the allegations that he allowed businessmen to win lucrative government contracts and influence the selection of cabinet members during his tenure from 2009 to 2018.
With Post wires