THE Constitutional Court has agreed to hear former president Jacob Zuma’s urgent application to rescind its order sentencing him to jail for 15 months for contempt of court.
The matter is set for court on Monday, July 12 2021.07.
The Constitutional Court issued these directions on Saturday, after Zuma made the application on Friday.
The Jacob Zuma Foundation said on Saturday that the former President will break his silence on the Constitutional Court saga on Sunday afternoon at 6pm.
The foundation added that on Tuesday the Pietermaritzburg High Court will hear an urgent interdict preventing Minister of Police from arresting Zuma pending his latest application.
Last Tuesday the Constitutional Court sentenced Zuma to 15 months imprisonment for contempt of court. The Concourt had further ordered Cele and Police Commissioner Khehla Sitole to ensure Zuma was arrested if he had failed to hand himself over by latest Sunday midnight.
Reuters is reporting that hundreds of supporters of the former president are marching longside Zuma in his hometown of Nkandla on Saturday, in a show of force against a court decision to jail him for 15 months for failing to appear at a corruption inquiry.
Among ANC heavyweights gathered at his homestead included suspended ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule and ANC KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Sihle Zikalala.
Zuma on Friday asked the country’s top court to annul his 15-month jail sentence for failing to appear at a corruption inquiry, saying it was excessive, unjust and might kill him if he catches COVID-19 in prison.
The constitutional court sentenced Zuma to 15 months in jail on Tuesday for failing to appear at the corruption inquiry led by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo in February.
In an affidavit submitted on Friday, Zuma said going to jail would put him at great risk.
“I am a 79-year-old man who suffers from a medical condition that constant and intense therapy,” he said.
“My state of health (is among) many reasons I should not be imprisoned … in the context of the a deadly pandemic (in) which people in my circumstances are … at the highest risk of death,” he said.
Since being ousted by his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, in 2018, Zuma has faced several legal manoeuvres aimed at bringing him to justice on allegations of grand corruption during and before his time as president.
These include Zondo’s inquiry and a separate court case relating to a $2 billion arms deal in 1999, when Zuma was deputy president.
Zuma also called the sentence a “political statement of exemplary punishment”. He has maintained all along that he is the victim of a political witch hunt, and that Zondo is biased against him.
The Zondo Commission is examining allegations of high-level graft involving three Indian-born businessmen, the brothers Atul, Ajay and Rajesh Gupta, during Zuma’s period in power from 2009 to 2018. Allegations against Zuma include that he allowed the Gupta brothers to plunder state resources and influence policy. He and all three Gupta brothers have denied any wrongdoing.
“The constitutional court must reconsider its orders that completely strip me of so many of my guaranteed constitutional rights,” he said.
- Inside Politics. Additional reporting by Reuters.
