Ex-South African president Jacob Zuma sentenced to fifteen months in jail for contempt of courtroom

South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma has been discovered responsible of contempt of courtroom and sentenced to fifteen months in jail for defying a courtroom order to look earlier than an inquiry probing wide-ranging allegations of corruption throughout his tenure from 2009 to 2018.
Zuma was not in courtroom for the ruling on Tuesday and has been ordered at hand himself over inside 5 days to a police station in his hometown of Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province or in Johannesburg.
This is the primary time in South Africa’s historical past {that a} former president has been sentenced to jail.
Former South African President Jacob Zuma, sits within the High Court in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, Wednesday May 26, 2021, firstly of his corruption trial. (AP)
The nation’s apex courtroom, the Constitutional Court, dominated that Zuma defied an order by the nation’s highest courtroom by refusing to cooperate with the fee of inquiry, which is chaired by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo.
“The Constitutional Court holds that there can be no doubt that Mr. Zuma is in contempt of court. Mr. Zuma was served with the order and it is impossible to conclude anything other than that he was unequivocally aware of what it required of him,” stated performing chief justice Sisi Khampepe.
She added that in figuring out the jail sentence for Zuma, the courtroom discovered it unimaginable to conclude that he would adjust to every other order.
“Mr. Zuma has repeatedly reiterated that he would rather be imprisoned than to cooperate with the commission or comply with the order made,” stated Khampepe.
Zuma has beforehand expressed his unwillingness to look earlier than the fee, which has thus far heard proof straight implicating Zuma in wrongdoing.
In a earlier 21-page letter written to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, which the courtroom has described as “scandalous,” Zuma claimed that he was able to be despatched to jail.
In his letter which he launched to the general public, Zuma claimed that the fee chairman, Zondo, was biased towards him and that proof offered towards him was politically motivated.

Some former Cabinet ministers, high-ranking authorities officers and executives of state-owned enterprises are amongst witnesses who’ve implicated Zuma in corruption.
Several have testified that whereas president Zuma allowed members of the controversial Gupta household to affect his appointment of Cabinet ministers and profitable contracts at state-owned corporations.
Zuma can also be dealing with further authorized woes as he’s standing trial to face costs associated to bribes that he allegedly acquired throughout South Africa’s 1999 arms procurement deal.
He has pleaded not responsible to the fees and his attorneys have utilized for the lead prosecutor in his case to step down due to alleged bias towards Zuma.