The daughter of South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma has said that her father was ready to comply with a 15-month jail term handed by the Constitutional Court, News24 reports, quoting Duduzile Zuma’s tweet.
“Lockdown or no lockdown we will escort you to serve your time,” she tweeted saying her father was in “high spirits and has no fear”.
The former president’s spokesperson, Mzwanele Manyi, told eNCA TV station that he imagined Mr Zuma was “shocked,” by the court ruling, News24 reports.
“If you have judges that are saying this judgment is unconstitutional, what do you expect should be the attitude of [former] president Zuma?” Mr Manyi said.
The sentence comes after the Constitutional Court found him guilty of contempt for defying its order to appear at an inquiry into corruption while he was president.
Mr Zuma’s time in power, which ended in 2018, was dogged by graft allegations.
Businessmen were accused of conspiring with politicians to influence the decision-making process.
Acting Chief Justice Sisi Khampepe was damning in her ruling.
Mr Zuma refused to come to the court to explain his actions, she said, and he “elected instead to make provocative, unmeritorious and vituperative statements that constituted a calculated effort to impugn the integrity of the judiciary.
“I am left with no option but to commit Mr Zuma to imprisonment, with the hope that doing so sends an unequivocal message… the rule of law and the administration of justice prevails.”
Source: BBC
