South African Regional Court to Rule on Whether to Block Order For Zuma’s Arrest
A South African regional court will on Friday rule on whether it will block an order by the country’s top court for the arrest of Former South African president Jacob Zuma.
This Friday, a South African regional court will rule on whether it will block an order by the country’s top court for the arrest of Former South African president Jacob Zuma.
On Tuesday, the Pietermaritzburg High Court in KwaZulu-Natal province heard arguments by Zuma’s lawyer.
The latter says the court should stop the order made by the Constitutional Court last week asking that police must arrest Zuma by midnight on Wednesday.
Zuma’s lawyers argued that the court should stop the police from arresting him until the Constitutional Court rules on his application to rescind the sentence. The case will be heard on Monday July 12.
”(The) order must await next Monday. But these other parties (the defendants) nevertheless forged ahead to come to this court and make a non-existent case. And your lordship, we leave it in your lordship’s hands to indicate its appropriate opprobrium”, said Dali Mpofu, lawyer for the embattled politician.
In an opposing argument, defendant Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, who represented the Zondo commission, said Zuma was already in defiance of the court order by not turning himself over to authorities.
“We are dealing here with a repetitive, recalcitrant law-breaker in the form of Mr. Zuma. He has now approached you (the court) to assist him in breaking the law further. You should reject that,” Ngcukaitobi said.
The judgment in the case will be delivered Friday.
Zuma, 79, was found guilty of contempt after he failed to obey the court’s order to appear before the Zondo commission probing accusations of corruption when he served as president between 2009 and 2018.
Over the weekend, hundreds of Zuma’s supporters had gathered outside his rural home in Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal. They vowed to prevent any attempts to arrest him.
Zuma told a news conference on Sunday that ‘’sending me to jail during the pandemic and at my age is the same as sentencing me to death’’.
