Police minister Bheki Cele has noted the Constitutional Court judgment on former president Jacob Zuma and committed to upholding the rule of law.
Cele spoke during an interministerial briefing on the government’s response to Covid-19 shortly after SA’s apex court sentenced Zuma to 15 months in jail for defying an order of the court to testify at the state capture inquiry.
“We are instructed by court and police will have to act,” Cele said.
Zuma will have until Sunday to hand himself over to the police, failing which Cele has been ordered to enact the judgment by ensuring the police arrest Zuma.
In an extraordinary ruling from the Constitutional Court, the court ruled that Zuma’s blatant disregard for the law and calculated assault on the judiciary was intolerable and posed a threat to SA’s constitutional democracy.
The country’s superior court built a contingency into its order, which is triggered if Zuma fails to comply with the order to report to the police within five days to begin serving his jail term. If Zuma does not submit himself to the police by Sunday, Cele and police commissioner Khehla Sitole have three days to make that happen.
The Constitutional Court has compelled them — it uses the word “must” — to take “all steps that are necessary and permissible in law” to ensure Zuma is taken to jail to commence his sentence.
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