A general view of the Estcourt Correctional Centre, where former South African president Jacob Zuma began serving his 15-month sentence for contempt of the Constitutional Court, in Estcourt, on July 8, 2021. – Jacob Zuma reported to prison early on July 8, 2021 after mounting a last-ditch legal bid and stoking defiance among radical supporters who had rallied at his rural home.
The Constitutional Court on June 29 slapped Zuma with the prison stretch for refusing to appear before a probe into the corruption that mired his nine years in power.Should the bid fail, Zuma’s team will seek to convince the judges that jail time is not the appropriate punishment for this instance of contempt, due to reasons including the implications for Zuma’s health, according to an information handout for media from the court on Saturday.
The man once dubbed the “Teflon president”, spent his first night in jail on Thursday after handing himself in to authorities following hours of drama and suspense. He returned in November 2020, without uttering a word, and missed several subsequent appointments by evading his summonses on various grounds, including medical reasons, lack of funds and his request to have the chairman of the commission, then-deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, recuse himself.