By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former president Jacob Zuma is filing an urgent application for the rescission of the Constitutional Court ruling in terms of which he was sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt by refusing to appear before the Commission of Inquiry in State Capture.
In an affidavit filed to the Concourt on Friday afternoon, Zuma said his ill-health and the fact that he was 79 years old should be taken into consideration, especially as he was considered high-risk during this Covid-19 pandemic.
In his founding affidavit, Zuma said his imprisonment would not serve constitutional value but may be a political statement.
Zuma’s legal team – led by advocate Dali Mpofu, SC – has also indicated to the state that the former president will urgently seek to stay the implementation of the order for his arrest and committal in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg.
On Tuesday, the apex court handed Zuma an unprecedented sentence of direct imprisonment for defying its earlier order that he comply with summons served by the state capture commission and further scandalising the authority probing state capture in a string of political attacks.
“Never before has the legitimacy of this court, nor the authority vested in the rule of law, been subjected to the kind of sacrilegious attacks that Mr Zuma, no less in stature than a former president of this Republic, has elected to launch,” the court held in a majority judgment penned and delivered by Acting Deputy Chief Justice Sisi Khampepe.
Khampepe has signed a warrant of arrest for Zuma, directing that he be held at the Westville Prison in KwaZulu-Natal.
The court gave him five calendar days to hand himself over, failing which the minister and national commissioner of police have three days to ensure his arrest.
If he does not, the Concourt said the Police Minister Bheki Cele had three days to effect his arrest.
An urgent application of rescission in response to a constitutional court ruling would be unprecedented, lawyers said on Friday, and is unlikely to succeed. But it may buy Zuma time as he continues to seek to shore up political support.
Meanwhile the Jacob Zuma Foundation has announced the former president will “address the nation” this weekend as the countdown for him to start serving his prison sentence continues.