The South African Constitutional Court on Tuesday found former President Jacob Zuma guilty of contempt of court and sentenced him to a 15-month jail term.
Zuma was not in court for the ruling on Tuesday and has been ordered to hand himself over within five days to a police station in his hometown of Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province or in Johannesburg.
The country’s State Capture Inquiry accused Zuma of accepting bribes, gratification, and unauthorized payments from other parties in relation to the procurement of arms worth billions in 1999.
The country’s apex court, the Constitutional Court, ruled that Zuma defied an order by the country’s highest court by refusing to cooperate with the commission 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,” said acting chief justice Sisi Khampepe.
She added that in determining the jail sentence for Zuma, the court found it impossible to conclude that he would comply with any 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,” said Khampepe.
Zuma has previously expressed his unwillingness to appear before the commission, which has so far heard evidence directly implicating Zuma in wrongdoing.
In a previous 21-page letter written to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, which the court has described as “scandalous,” Zuma claimed that he was ready to be sent to prison.
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.
This jail sentence marks a dramatic turning point for a man who was last in prison half a century ago, for his role in South Africa’s liberation struggle.
In a separate legal matter, Zuma pleaded not guilty last month in his corruption trial involving a $5bn (£3bn) arms deal from the 1990s.