He embodies both the best and the worst of South Africa: ex-President Jacob Zuma, a political detainee during the struggle against apartheid, was taken prisoner on Wednesday after a 15-month prison sentence for his refusal to testify before an anti-corruption commission.
“President Zuma has decided to comply with the order of incarceration.
He is on his way to go to a correctional establishment "in the province of Kwazulu-Natal where he was entrenched, she said in a message on Twitter, a few minutes before the ultimatum set at midnight by the justice system , announced the foundation that represents him.
Jacob Zuma was sentenced last week by the country's highest court, a decision without appeal.
He was to be taken prisoner by Sunday evening, otherwise the police had orders to arrest him by Wednesday midnight.
Supreme Court decision to come
About half an hour before the expiry of this period, a convoy of ten cars left Jacob Zuma's residence in Nkandla, in Zulu country (East) at high speed.
Until late at night, well after the 9 p.m. curfew in the country, a few dozen supporters sang and danced, some men wearing traditional animal skin headbands.
The former president, familiar with the courts, got the Constitutional Court to reconsider his sentence at a new hearing scheduled for July 12.
He also demanded that his arrest be suspended by then, but the decision must be rendered Friday by the court in Pietermaritzburg (East).
Forty testimonies against him
Questioning the impartiality of the judges, Jacob Zuma invoked for the revision of his sentence an “unstable” state of health, arguing that an incarceration would condemn him to “a death penalty” in the context of the pandemic.
He also warned, in front of his supporters on Saturday, that violence should be expected if the police "dared" to arrest him.
Forced to resign in 2018 after a series of scandals, the 79-year-old "freedom fighter" has always enjoyed strong popular support and retained an influence at the heart of the political machine.
To the point of preventing his successor Cyril Ramaphosa from asserting himself within the historic ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), by maintaining a fratricidal factional war.
He is accused of plundering public resources during his nine years in power.
Since the creation in 2018 of a commission of inquiry into state corruption, Jacob Zuma, implicated by some forty testimonies, has been stepping up to avoid testifying, which has earned him this prison sentence. closed.
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