Ex-South African president Jacob Zuma wakes up in jail

The former -South African president, Jacob Zuma will, on Thursday (today), begin a court-ordered prison sentence despite days of protests by his supporters.

The 79-year-old had long tried to resist, and veterans’ associations supporting him also threatened to destabilise the country if he was arrested.

Dozens of them had posted themselves as guards outside his country residence, Nkandla.

According to police, Mr Zuma is now in the Estcourt Correctional Centre in KwaZulu-Natal, a province on the country’s east coast. He had decided to surrender to the police, the Zuma Foundation announced.

The politician thus escaped arrest by the police. Mr Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison by the Constitutional Court on June 29 for disobeying a court summons.

He has to answer a commission of inquiry on various corruption charges during his 2009 to 2018 term in office but had failed to comply with a court summons. On several occasions, Mr Zuma had questioned the commission’s legitimacy and stressed that he would rather go to jail than appear there.

It is the first time a former president of the country has been sentenced to prison. The politician’s lawyers had filed an urgent motion in the evening to postpone the start of his imprisonment.

The police had arrived with numerous vehicles in front of Mr Zuma’s country residence Nkandla in eastern South Africa, in front of the running cameras of a large media contingent.

After several rounds of negotiations with his lawyers, a convoy of cars carrying Zuma finally left the estate.