At last, ex-President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, begins serving his 15-months jail term after handing himself over to police.
Zuma had argued that his conviction was tantamount to a death sentence and that he would challenge the ruling just the way he fought apartheid.
According to CNN, Zuma, who served as South Africa’s President from 2009 to 2018, had been given until July 4 to hand himself over to police, and that if he failed to show up, the police were given until the end of Wednesday to arrest the 79-year-old and bring him in.
The global news outfit says just before the clock wound down on the midnight deadline, Zuma was admitted to the Estcourt Correctional Center near his home in KwaZulu-Natal province, according to the Department of Correctional Services.
“Former President of South Africa, Mr Jacob Zuma was on July 7, 2021, placed in the custody of the South African Police Service, in compliance with the Constitutional Court judgment,” CNN quoted Police Ministry spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said in a statement.
The report says Zuma was found guilty of contempt of court and handed a 15-month jail term on June 29, a landmark move in the country’s long-running corruption saga.
According to the report, the order stemmed from Zuma’s refusal to appear at an anti-corruption commission to answer questions about his alleged involvement in corruption during his time as president.
CNN says the conviction of Zuma is a highly symbolic moment that the former President and key figure of the African National Congress (ANC), who spent ten years in prison with the anti-apartheid hero and former President Nelson Mandela, could spend significant time in prison.
It, however, says that his incarceration, could be short-lived as on Friday, July 9, a High Court judge will rule whether police should have waited to bring him in until after a Constitutional Court hearing, due to take place on July 12, where his lawyers will argue mitigating circumstances in his sentence.
