Top court upholds Jacob Zuma jail sentence
An attempt by former president Jacob Zuma to have his 15-month jail term for contempt of court vacated by South Africa‘s highest court was denied on Friday, in a decision that was seen as a severe test of the country’s resolve to hold powerful persons accountable.
The Constitutional Court affirmed its own conclusion that Zuma should be jailed for refusing to testify at a commission of investigation into widespread wrongdoing in government and state-owned corporations while he was president of South Africa from 2009-2018.
Zuma; who resigned as president in 2018 after being accused of corruption; retains a sizable following in sections of South Africa; as well as inside the country’s dominant African National Congress party.
A long-running argument with the judicial committee of investigation resulted in his imprisonment in July when he walked out of his testimony mid-way and refused to appear again.
Medical parole was given to 79-year-old Zuma after he served two months of his sentence due to an undisclosed medical condition. Opposition parties criticize his release from prison, claiming that due process was not followed.
The most recent decision has no bearing on Zuma’s release, but the main opposition party in South Africa and at least two other organizations have indicated they will challenge it in court as well after the head of the department of corrections said he overruled a parole board decision and authorized Zuma’s release himself. That’ll bring the judiciary back into the limelight.
Zuma’s sentence was upheld by a 7-2 vote in the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg on Friday; according to Justice Sisi Khampepe, who delivered the court’s verdict. Zuma contended that his sentence was unjust because; among other things; he was imprisoned without a trial and the sentence was handed out without his presence.
Seven justices ruled that Zuma refused to participate in the Constitutional Court procedures that resulted in his conviction and then attempted to reopen the case after it was ended. “The Constitutional Court’s hands are tied, and Mr. Zuma tied them,” Justice Khampepe stated. Zuma’s detention set up riots and looting in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng; the country’s economic center; in one of the most unpleasant moments since the end of apartheid in 1994 in South Africa. Malls and factories and warehouses were plundered; more than 300 people were killed in what President Cyril Ramaphosa called an “orchestrated attack” on South Africa.
The riots sparked fears that Zuma would avoid incarceration and the legal system would be subverted to placate his followers.
While Zuma has been a divisive politician for all of his career, he faces corruption charges in a different case, where he is accused of accepting payments related to a $4 billion arms contract between South Africa and the French manufacturer Thales in 1999. The first phase of his corruption trial, which began in May, is scheduled to resume the following week.
After years of allegations of corruption; both trials against Zuma have put the country’s commitment to bring him to justice to the test.
Zuma is currently being treated at a hospital; according to his foundation; which has refused to disclose his whereabouts, when he will be discharged or if he will attend court for the scheduled resumption of his corruption trial.
