South Africa’s former president Zuma turns himself in for 15-month prison term

Issued on: 08/07/2021 – 00:33

The constitutional court gave Zuma a 15 month jail term last week for defying an instruction earlier this year to give evidence at an inquiry into corruption during his nine years in power until 2018.

“President Zuma has decided to comply with the incarceration order. He is on his way to hand himself into a correctional services facility in KwaZulu-Natal,” his foundation said in a comment on Twitter.

Zuma, 79, had been given until the end of last Sunday to hand himself in. Police had been instructed to arrest him by the end of Wednesday if he failed to do so.

South African TV stations carried images of Zuma’s motorcade leaving his house in the town of Nkandla, although none were able to confirm whether or not he was in it.

The authorities’ response to Zuma’s lack of cooperation with the inquiry so far—after years of allegations about corruption and sleaze—has been seen as a test of post-apartheid South Africa’s ability to implement the rule of law.

Zuma denies there was widespread corruption under his leadership and on Sunday, he struck a defiant note, comparing the judges who condemned him to the white minority apartheid rulers he once fought.

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.

(REUTERS)