Members of the ANC, MKMVA and Amabutho escort former president Jacob Zuma at his Nkandla residence on Saturday. Zuma as found guilty of contempt of court by the Constitutional Court and has been sentenced to 15 months imprisonment. Picture: Gallo Images
On closer inspection, though, many of his bold claims reveal themselves as at best misleading and at worst plain lies. But in a last ditch effort to try and avoid the slammer, Zuma’s lawyers have now turned to the courts. Late last week, they approached the Constitutional Court with a rescission application. And at the same time, they also approached the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg with an application to effectively stay Zuma’s detention in the interim.During Sunday night’s briefing, Zuma was adamant that he “never refused to appear before the commission”.
Zuma on Sunday also claimed he was “lambasted with a punitive jail sentence without a trial” and likened the contempt of court proceedings he was subjected to, to detention without trial under apartheid.As legal expert advocate Paul Hoffman SC pointed out on Monday, the proceedings in question were civil contempt proceedings in which Zuma wasn’t entitled to a trial.
Justice Sisi Khampepe – who penned the apex court’s majority judgment – laid out the extent to which the commission and the court went to in order to give Zuma an opportunity to participate, even going so far as to reach out to him after the hearing and invite him to make submissions. “We are all equal before the law,” said Hoffman, “For him to think he’s the only person who’s ever been charged with contempt of court is phantasmagorical”.
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