Meet Jacob Zuma, the Former South Africa President, going to Jail for 15 months over contempt of court

Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt of court after failing to appear before a corruption inquiry earlier this year

The judge ordered the former president to hand himself in within five days. She also stated that If he fails to do so, police will be ordered to arrest him and ensure he is “delivered to a correctional center.”

Jacob Zuma was the fourth democratically elected President of South Africa from 2009 until his resignation on 14 February 2018.

Zuma also served as the Deputy President of South Africa from 1999 to 2005 but was dismissed by President Thabo Mbeki in 2005 after Zuma’s financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was convicted of soliciting a bribe.

He joined the ANC, the country’s ruling party, in 1959 and its military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), in 1962. He was arrested in 1963 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on Robben Island which he served on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela and other notable ANC leaders also imprisoned during this time for conspiring to overthrow South Africa’s apartheid government.

After his release, he set up underground networks to recruit for Umkhonto we Sizwe. In 1975 Zuma fled the country to escape arrest. For more than a decade, he continued to work for the ANC while based in neighboring countries.

When the South African government’s ban on the ANC was lifted in 1990, Zuma returned to the country and was elected chairperson of the Southern Natal region. He became ANC deputy general secretary in 1991, and in 1994 he became a member of the executive committee for economic affairs and tourism in the newly created province of KwaZulu-Natal. In December 1997 he was elected deputy president of the ANC, and in June 1999 he was appointed deputy president of the country by Pres. Thabo Mbeki

Zuma led the ANC to victory in the 2009 general election and was elected President of South Africa. He was re-elected as ANC leader at the ANC conference in Mangaung on 18 December 2012, defeating challenger Kgalema Motlanthe by a large majority, and remained president of South Africa after the 2014 general election, although his party suffered a decline in support, partly due to growing dissatisfaction with Zuma as president.

Zuma has faced significant legal challenges before, during, and after his presidency. He was charged with rape in 2005 but was acquitted.

He also fought a long legal battle over allegations of racketeering and corruption, resulting from his financial advisor Schabir Shaik’s conviction for corruption and fraud.

Zuma’s rule is estimated to have cost the South African economy R1 trillion (approximately US$83 billion).He has also been implicated in reports of state capture through his friendship with the influential Gupta family. He survived multiple motions of no confidence, both in parliament and within the ANC.

Since 2018, the Zondo Commission, established by Zuma himself prior to leaving office, has been investigating ‘allegations of state capture, corruption, fraud’ within the public sector. The focus has been on the Zuma presidency and accusations of ‘state capture’ by the Gupta family and close associates, as well nationwide maladministration and corruption at multiple levels. Zuma stated that there was a ‘foreign-backed conspiracy against him and that some of those testifying against him were apartheid-era spies’. Zuma has not returned to the inquiry since withdrawing on the fourth day of his testimony in July 2019.

In a separate legal matter, in 2018 the Supreme Court backed a decision to reinstate charges from 2009 of corruption against Zuma relating to a $5bn (£3bn) arms deal from the 1990s. He faces 16 counts of corruption, racketeering, fraud, and money laundering, accepting a total of 783 illegal payments. Zuma pleaded not guilty in May 2021.

On 29 June 2021, Zuma became the first president since the end of white-minority rule in 1994 to receive a prison sentence. The Constitutional Court of South Africa issued a 15-month sentence for contempt of court after Zuma defied an earlier court order to return and testify before the Zondo Commission.