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© Reuters. File picture: Former South African President Jacob Zuma talked with supporters gathered at his home because the South African court agreed to hear him sentenced to 15 months in prison for failing to attend a corruption hearing in Encandela, South Africa on July 4 question,
Authors: Alexander Wenning and Wendell Rolf
Johannesburg (Reuters)-On Tuesday, former South African President Jacob Zuma tried to prevent him from being arrested in court because senior police officials said they would stop Zuma when the two-sided legal challenge unfolded.
The Constitutional Court sentenced Zuma to 15 months in prison for contempt of court a week ago for violating an order to provide evidence in a corruption investigation during his nine years in power.
The court gave Zuma five days to surrender, otherwise the police were instructed to arrest him before the end of Wednesday.
But Zuma did not surrender. Instead, he asked the Constitutional Court to cancel the sentence and approached the High Court to issue an order-known as an injunction-to prevent his arrest.
The judge presiding over the case said he will make a ruling on whether to approve the injunction at 11:30 am (0930 GMT) on Friday.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, he lashed out at the judges who sentenced him and compared them with the few white rulers he fought in the liberation struggle. Hundreds of his supporters, some of them armed, gathered near his rural homestead to prevent him from being arrested.
Zuma’s recent resistance is seen as a test of the rule of law in South Africa. Because the former president still has a loyal following in his hometown of KwaZulu-Natal and the ruling African National Congress (ANC), it is likely to break out of violence.
On Tuesday, Zuma’s lawyer Dalimpov urged the Pietermaritzburg High Court to approve the injunction given the “serious situation” in the country since Zuma’s sentence and factors including his age.
He said: “What we have here is the arrest warrant for the former head of state who will turn 80 years old next birthday. For anyone, there is no risk of him running away.”
Outside the court, 20 to 30 Zuma supporters protested. They waved slogans such as “The People’s President deserves a fair trial” and wore T-shirts with the words “Let go of Zuma.”
A lawyer for the corruption investigation, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, said that Zuma is responsible for surrendering before Sunday. No matter he applies to the Constitutional Court to revoke the sentence, the Constitutional Court will hear the sentence on July 12.
Ngcukaitobi said: “Mr. Zuma personally takes the law in his own hands.” “We are dealing with a stubborn and deliberately provocative litigant.”
‘Every legal pathway’
The investigation that Zuma refused to participate in is examining allegations that he allowed three Indian-born businessmen, Atul, Ajay, and Rajesh Gupta, to plunder the country’s resources and transportation and its impact on government policy.
The Zuma and Gupta brothers fled the country after Zuma was expelled by allies of his successor Cyril Ramaphosa. They denied any wrongdoing.
In a letter to the Acting Chief Justice seen by Reuters, state prosecutors representing the Minister of Police and the Chief of Police stated that they will prevent the arrest of Zuma until the outcome of his lawsuit or instructions to take other actions.
Senior ANC official Jessie Duarte said that the party knew that Zuma was exploring “all legal ways” to reduce or evade his imprisonment.
“We believe that the judiciary must make its own decision, (but)… we hope that Comrade Zuma’s court application will be successful,” she said.
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