Former South African president Jacob Zuma, who was sentenced to 15 months in jail, is set to address the public on Sunday, in Durban, his foundation has said.
Cape Town – Former South African president Jacob Zuma, who was sentenced to 15 months in jail, is set to address the public on Sunday, in Durban, his foundation has said.
In a tweet on Friday, the foundation also said that the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg will on Tuesday, hear an urgent application to interdict Police Minister Bheki Cele from effecting Zuma’s arrest.
[UPDATE]
Friday:Rescission application in the CC to seek justice not sympathy.
Sunday Afternoon (time tba):Prez Zuma will adress the Nation in Dbn.
Tuesday:The PMB HC to hear an urgent application to interdict Min of Police from arresting Pres Zuma pending his CC application. pic.twitter.com/ppxgpIkzwm
— JGZuma Foundation (Official) (@JGZ_Foundation) July 2, 2021
In an unprecedented ruling, the Constitutional Court on Tuesday, June 29, handed Zuma a 15-month jail term for snubbing an order to appear before graft investigators.
The 79-year-old was given until Sunday, July 4, to turn himself in, failing which police will arrest him within three days and take him to jail to start the sentence.
But in the documents filed on Friday, Zuma asked South Africa’s top court to rescind its decision to sentence him.
He said he had been advised “it will not be futile to make one last attempt to invite the Constitutional Court to relook its decision and to merely reassess whether it has acted within the Constitution or, erroneously, beyond the powers vested in the court by the Constitution”.
Zuma cited his “own unstable state of health… it is my physical life that the incarceration order threatens”.
He said it was “no exaggeration to label (the ruling) as cruel and degrading punishment”.
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In this light, Zuma argued, he believed he was entitled to a court that would examine his request “with dispassionate interest but a keen sense of judicial duty and independence.”
The historic verdict has triggered a show of support from the Zuma’s fervent but dwindling followers, some of whom made their way to his rural home in the eastern town of Nklandla to express their solidarity.
Outside his homestead in Nkandla, his supporters vowed to physically defend him from the impending arrest.
According to a copy of a warrant of committal seen on Friday, Zuma would be taken to Westville Prison in southeastern Kwa-Zulu Natal province.
Supporters gathered on Friday outside Zuma’s rural home at Nkandla, about 200km away, in a show of solidarity.
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About two dozen women who said they travelled more than 300km overnight from the neighbouring Eastern Cape province camped at the entrance to his home.
“We support Zuma and we want to know what is going to happen with him, which is why we are here,” 43-year-old Cecilia Nongce said, wearing a traditional Nguni blue-and-red blanket to ward off the cold.
Zuma’s nine years as president were stained by scandal and allegations of graft, ending disastrously in 2018 when he was forced out by the ruling ANC and replaced as president by Cyril Ramaphosa.
But he is also charismatic, rising from herdboy to the presidency, and is one of the historic figures in the fight against apartheid, spending 10 years in prison at notorious Robben Island.
He retains a deeply loyal network of lawmakers, officials and grassroots supporters on the left flank of the ANC.
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Apparently fearing a showdown, the ANC said it had postponed a scheduled meeting of its top National Executive Committee this weekend.
“The national officials were mindful of the situation developing in Kwa-Zulu Natal and the need for the ANC to give clear and principled leadership to ensure the maintenance of the rule of law and to avoid any violence, injury, or loss of life,” the party said in a statement.
The ex-president’s foundation on Wednesday described the jail sentence as “emotional”, “angry” and “not consistent with our constitution”.
Zuma is separately due in court in July facing 16 charges of fraud, graft and racketeering relating to a 1999 purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and military gear from five European arms firms for 30 billion rand, then the equivalent of nearly $5 billion.
Additional reporting by AFP
Picture: Getty Images
