Johannesburg – Former South African president, Jacob Zuma, continues to walk free instead of being locked up behind bars after the Constitutional Court found him guilty of being in contempt of court for refusing to appear at the Zondo Commission and sentencing him to 15 months in prison, last week.
In the latest twist in the Zuma judgment saga, the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday heard Zuma’s application to stay his arrest while the country’s apex court, the ConCourt, would hear his bid to rescind his sentence on Monday.
The judge presiding over the case in the High Court said he would rule on Friday at 11:30 a.m on whether an interdict would be granted to the former president, preventing his imminent arrest.
The commission’s legal representative, Advocate Thembeka Ngcukaitobi SC, told the high court that Zuma’s application did not suspend his arrest.
Ngcukaitobi slammed Cele’s reasoning as “non-sensical”.
“There is no clarity needed from the Constitutional Court. The order is manifest. The order is operative,” he said.
“Mr Zuma is under a duty to comply with the court order,” he added.
Ngcukaitobi noted that Zuma had publicly stated that he would not comply with the order that he hand himself to the police. He warned that the constitution would be reduced to a “paper tiger” if the court order we not complied with.
“By his conduct, Mr Zuma has placed himself above judicial authority. He has defied the constitutional court,” he said.
Ngcukaitobi said the high court did not have jurisdiction to suspend an order of the highest court in the land, the Constitutional Court.
He said Zuma and his legal team knew that the application for the stay of his arrest was supposed to be made to the Constitutional Court, which issued the order.
Zuma’s defence
Zuma’s lawyer Dali Mpofu argued in the high court to grant the interdict given the “aggravated situation” in the country since Zuma was sentenced and factors including his age.
“What we have here, My Lord, is a warrant of arrest for the former head of state who will be 80 years next birthday, who is not a flight risk on anybody’s version,” he said.
Warrant of arrest for Jacob Zuma
Police Minister Bheki Cele has indicated, through the office of the State Attorney, that they would wait for Zuma’s applications to courts to be heard first before arresting him.
The police have until midnight, tonight to arrest the former president. According to reports, Cele is said to be waiting on a response from the letter sent to the ConCourt on whether or not to make the arrest.
Police ministry spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said many things could still happen before the midnight deadline, but if there was no word from the Constitutional Court by then, they would make the arrest.
“If there is no new direction, we do have a direction that ends at midnight on Wednesday. The direction is that if Mr Zuma does not hand himself [in], the police will have to arrest him,” Cele said in an interview with Newzroom Africa on Tuesday morning.
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