The Indian Panorama

Tag: Zuma

  • South Africa’s Zuma hands himself over to police to begin sentence

    South Africa’s Zuma hands himself over to police to begin sentence

    Nkandla (South Africa) (TIP): South African former President Jacob Zuma turned himself in to police on July 7 to begin 15 months in jail for contempt of court, the culmination of a long legal drama seen as a test of the post-apartheid state’s ability to enforce the rule of law.

    Police spokesperson Lirandzu Themba confirmed in a statement that Zuma was in police custody, in compliance with the Constitutional Court judgment.

    The Department of Correctional Services said in a separate statement that Zuma was admitted to Estcourt Correctional Centre, about 175 km (108 miles) from his rural homestead in Nkandla in eastern South Africa. Television aired live footage of his motorcade entering the facility.

    The court gave Zuma a 15-month jail term last week for defying an instruction earlier in February to give evidence at an inquiry into corruption during his nine years in power until 2018. The inquiry is led by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

    Police had been instructed to arrest Zuma by the end of Wednesday if he failed to appear at a police station. Hundreds of his supporters, some of them armed with guns, spears and shields, had gathered nearby at his homestead to try to prevent his arrest.

    But in the end, the 79-year-old Zuma decided to go quietly.

    “President Zuma has decided to comply with the incarceration order,” his foundation said, the first time Zuma’s camp had shown any willingness to cooperate with the court.

    It was a remarkable fall for a revered veteran of the African National Congress liberation movement, who was jailed by South Africa’s white minority rulers for his part in its struggle to make everyone equal before the law.

    Zuma denies there was widespread corruption under his leadership and he had struck a defiant note on Sunday, lashing out at the judges and launching legal challenges to his arrest.

    His lawyers asked the Constitutional Court on Wednesday to suspend its order to the police to arrest him by midnight pending the outcome of his challenge against a jail sentence.

    Zuma gave in to pressure to quit and yield to now-President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2018. He has since faced inquiries into allegations of corruption dating from his time as president and before.

    The Zondo Commission is examining allegations that he allowed three Indian-born businessmen, Atul, Ajay and Rajesh Gupta, to plunder state resources and traffic influence over government policy. He and the Gupta brothers, who fled to Dubai after Zuma was ousted, deny any wrongdoing.

    Zuma also faces a separate court case relating to a $2 billion arms deal in 1999 when he was deputy president. He denies the charges.

    The former president maintains that he is the victim of a political witch hunt and that Zondo is biased against him. Reuters

  • South Africa’s Zuma doesn’t say if he will comply with jail

    Johannesburg (TIP): Former South African President Jacob Zuma has denounced the 15-month prison sentence he has been given by the country’s highest court and has not said if he will voluntarily comply with the order to turn himself over to the police.

    Legal experts and anti-corruption experts have widely welcomed the Constitutional Court’s ruling this week that Zuma should be imprisoned for defying a court order to testify before a judicial inquiry into widespread allegations of corruption during his presidential term from 2009 to 2018.

    Zuma criticised the ruling by Justice Sisi Kampempe as “judicially emotional and angry and not consistent with our Constitution”, in a statement issued on Thursday by the Jacob Zuma Foundation.

    Zuma gave no indication of whether he will hand himself over to South Africa’s police within five days, as the Tuesday ruling ordered, or if he will wait for police to come and get him after that period expires.

    About two hundred of Zuma’s supporters, many carrying traditional Zulu shields and sticks, arrived at Nkandla, the former president’s home in rural KwaZulu-Natal, to show their support.

    Among those welcoming the sentence for Zuma was Mac Maharaj, a veteran leader of the ruling African National Congress party who had served as Zuma’s presidential spokesman from 2011 until 2015. Maharaj said he resigned because he did not want to be associated with the corruption that he witnessed.

    “The evidence is overwhelming that under his administration corruption developed to a point where it became endemic in our system,” Maharaj told the public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

    He hailed the ruling against Zuma as a watershed moment for South Africa.

    “History may find that this was the moment that constitutes the turning point in our closing the chapter in the abuse of power and corruption, and entrenching our constitutional democracy,” Maharaj said.

    Professor Lesiba Teffo, a political analyst at the University of South Africa, said Zuma had been given more than enough time to comply with the court order.

    “As the saying goes, he was given a long rope. And he reached a cul-de-sac. What has happened is a resounding judgment that I embrace in full,” said Teffo.

    (AP)