South Africa’s Constitutional Court To Hear Former President Zuma’s Challenge

South Africa’s constitutional court has agreed to hear former President Jacob Zuma’s challenge to rescind an order sentencing him to jail for 15 months on contempt charges.

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.

The former president was given until the end of Sunday to hand himself in, after which police would be obliged to arrest him. But the court agreed on Saturday to hear his application on July 12.

Instead of “handing himself over by tomorrow or face arrest in the coming days … Jacob Zuma will return or at least show up for the first time at the Constitutional Court to defend himself.”

Miller said that prior to the sentence the leader had different opportunities to voice his concerns.

“He ignored [the opportunities],” Miller said. “And now it seems just a day before he is supposed to hand himself over he is willing to talk to the Constitutional Court,” she added.

Zuma has called the sentence a “political statement of exemplary punishment”. He has maintained he is the victim of a political witch hunt and that Zondo is biased against him.

In his application to annul the decision submitted on Friday, Zuma said going to jail “would put him at the highest risk of death” from the pandemic because he is nearly 80 and has a medical condition.