By: Shilpa Sharma
By: Shilpa Sharma
SOUTH AFRICA’S ousted leader Jacob Zuma on Friday (2) urged the country’s top court to cancel his 15-month jail sentence amid fear of catching the Covid-19 infection.
On Tuesday (29), the constitutional court sentenced Zuma to 15 months in jail for failing to appear at the corruption inquiry led by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo in February.
He was given five days to appear before police.
Zuma submitted an affidavit in the court on Friday (2), which said going to jail would put him at great risk.
“I am a 79-year-old man who suffers from a medical condition that constant and intense therapy,” he said, not elaborating.
“My state of health (is among) many reasons I should not be imprisoned … in the context of the a deadly pandemic (in) which people in my circumstances are … at the highest risk of death,” he said.
Zuma was ousted by his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, in 2018. Since then, he has faced many legal trials to bring him to justice on corruption-related allegations during and before his tenure as president.
These include Zondo’s inquiry and a separate court case relating to a $2 billion (£1.4bn) arms deal in 1999, when Zuma was deputy president.
So far, Zuma has maintained that he is the victim of a political witch hunt, and that Zondo is biased against him.
The Zondo Commission is examining allegations of high-level graft that involves three Indian-born businessmen, the brothers Atul, Ajay and Rajesh Gupta, when Zuma was in power from 2009 to 2018.
Allegations against Zuma include that he allowed the Gupta brothers to plunder state resources and influence policy.
Meanwhile, Zuma and the three Gupta brothers have denied any wrongdoing.
