Johannesburg – President Jacob Zuma’s whereabouts have come under the spotlight after the Constitutional Court sentenced him to 15 months imprisonment for “blatant contempt” of the country’s apex court.
Zuma has until Sunday to hand himself over to the Nkandla Police Station or the Johannesburg Central Police Station.
The court also ordered Police Minister Bheki Cele and national commissioner Khetha Sitole, to take necessary measures to ensure Zuma is apprehended and taken into custody.
Zuma’s spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi said he could not disclose the former’s president’s whereabouts.
“To say where president Zuma is is a security matter,” he told eNCA.
This came as members of the dissolved Umkhonto We Sizwe Military Veterans Association continued to maintain a presence outside Zuma’s homestead in Nkandla.
Manyi intimated that it was going to be hard to convince Zuma to accept the sentence given that it was not unanimous.
He said Zuma was shocked by the judgement, adding it was a travesty of justice.
“What do you expect President Zuma will do when judges are saying it is unconstitutional (to sentence him to 15 months to prison). I think we have a crisis,” Manyi said.
This is after Justice Sisi Khampepe, who penned the majority judgement, ruled that Zuma was in contempt of court for failing to cooperate with an order that he appear before the Zondo commission of inquiry to give evidence.
In a historical, strongly-worded judgement, Khampepe said the Zuma case tested the strength of the judiciary and that the protection of the courts was at the heart of the matter.
Zuma threatened the judicial process in the country, and that his conduct flies in the face of the oath of office he took on two occasions to uphold and protect the Constitution.
“No one is above the law,” she said, adding that an act of defiance of the judicial order precipitated a potential constitutional crisis.
The court, which viewed Zuma’s defiance as an attempt to destroy the rule of law altogether, used strong words throughout the judgement to condemn Zuma’s unprecedented attacks on the judiciary, saying they were slanderous, spurious, outlandish, and intolerable, among others.
Zuma, as the former president, was not an ordinary litigant and still wielded political influence and the court had to send an unequivocal message against his defiance, Khampepe said.
“Mr Zuma’s conduct has undoubtedly set an example to society,” she said.
Zuma has repeatedly said in public that he was prepared to go to jail instead of subjecting himself to what he calls a “judicial dictatorship”.
This was the second landmark ruling that the Constitutional Court has delivered against Zuma.
In March 2016, the court ruled that the remedial action of the Public Protector was binding and that he pay back the money for non-security installations at his Nkandla compound.
The ANC top brass will this weekend meet to discuss the landmark Constitutional Court decision to sentence former President Jacob Zuma to 15 months imprisonment.
The governing party’s national executive committee, the highest decision-making body between conferences, will reflect on the consequences and implications of the decision.
“The ANC is currently studying the judgement. Without a doubt, this is a difficult time in our movement and we call upon our members to remain,” the party said in a statement.
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