Former president Jacob Zuma has launched a scathing attack on the Constitutional Court, which on Tuesday sentenced him to 15 months in jail for defying an order to testify at the state capture inquiry. However, he remains mum on whether he will comply and surrender to police.
Until late on Wednesday night, Zuma had not issued public comment on the court’s sanction against him. Business Day confirmed minutes after the judgment that Zuma engaged his lawyers in “urgent” talks.
The letter from Zuma’s eponymous foundation is the most comprehensive response from Zuma’s camp to date following the court’s decision. It asserts the country’s highest judges have attempted to be judges in their own case.
Zuma’s foundation issued a statement saying, though he and his legal team were still studying the 127-page judgment and assessing any legal options available to him, the former president denounced the court ruling “as judicially emotional and angry and not consistent with [the] constitution”.
In the statement, Zuma accuses deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo of bias, and ignoring the review Zuma lodged for his removal as the commission’s chair. The statement claims Zondo “lodged an urgent application” to the apex court to have Zuma sentenced for contempt when, in fact, the commission’s chair was the applicant.
The commission, which is tasked with investigating allegations of state capture during Zuma’s tenure as president between 2009 and 2018, has heard testimonies from various witnesses regarding how Zuma’s close allies allegedly benefited from widespread fraud and corruption at state-owned entities and government departments.
The late night release begins with a nod to the inquiry, which was “established to perform a very important and invaluable task for our country”. It soon lays into the process, however, with a claim it is “fact” the Zondo commission was changed into a “slaughterhouse” in which “unsubstantiated and defamatory allegations have been made” against Zuma.
He asserts, via his foundation, that the principal of equality before the law was “clearly violated” in the Constitutional Court case. Zuma, of his own volition, abstained from participating in the process.
In early April, chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng wrote to Zuma ordering him to file an affidavit of no more than 15 pages. He sought Zuma’s input on what would be an appropriate sanction if the court found him guilty of contempt. Instead of filing an affidavit, he wrote a 21-page letter declaring a “conscientious objection” to participating.
The latest two-page statement from Zuma’s camp asserts the judgment show the judges were clearly “very angry” and so “cruelly slandered” Zuma. He insists the country’s supreme law “was not vindicated in this matter at all” and his foundation sides with the minority judgment.
The minority judgment was penned by justice Leona Theron with justice Chris Jafta concurring. While it suggested a different sanction for Zuma — and would have given him one last chance to obey the summonses to testify, when Zuma has repeatedly indicated his unwillingness to co-operate with the commission — it agrees with the majority that Zuma was in contempt of court.
While the document provides no clarity on the most critical element of the case, an order Zuma report to police and go to jail by Sunday, it misconstrues the court’s finding on the crime of which Zuma is guilty.
Zuma’s foundation insists it is not a criminal offence to have a dispute with the commission. That is not the basis upon which the Constitutional Court sentenced him to 15 months in jail, however. The court found Zuma guilty of the crime of contempt of court, and sentenced him accordingly.
Acting chief justice Sisi Khampepe authored the majority judgment, which she read out and handed down on Tuesday. On Tuesday, Zuma’s spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi said the decision was shocking.
Under an hour after the judgment was handed down, Zuma’s daughter, Duduzile, reported she had “just” spoken to her father, who was in high spirits. She undertook to escort Zuma to serve his time.
The court gave Zuma five days to report to police at either the Johannesburg or Nkandla stations for immediate transfer to prison. Failing that, the court declared the police minister Bheki Cele and police commissioner Khehla Sitole “must” ensure Zuma goes to jail to serve time.
While Zuma cannot appeal the court’s decision, he will be eligible to apply for parole after serving a portion of his sentence.
Llewellyn Curlewis, a senior lecturer at the University of Pretoria who specialises in criminal law and procedure, said: “The best Zuma can do is apply for parole after doing 50% of his sentence.”
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