South Africa’s Jacob Zuma received a 15-month jail sentence for contempt of court on Thursday, becoming the country’s first post-apartheid president to be jailed. The 79-year-old Zuma was sentenced to prison early Thursday morning after mounting a last-ditch legal bid and stirring up defiance among supporters who had gathered at his rural home.
Zuma was sentenced to 15 months for refusing to appear before a corruption probe that entangled his nine years in power by South Africa’s top court on June 29. As police warned him that he would be arrested from midnight Wednesday, Zuma surrendered to a jail in the rural town of Estcourt in KwaZulu-Natal, his home province. His incarceration was hailed as a watershed moment by many South Africans.
Thuli Madonsela, the former chief commissioner of the anti-corruption commission, said the case was a giant development to the country’s rule-of-law journey’. ‘If he had not gone to prison, it would have sent shock waves to the system,’ she said.
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According to investigators, state assets were diverted by Zuma’s cronies for billions of dollars. The deadline for Zuma to turn himself in was Sunday night. The police had three days, until midnight Wednesday, to arrest him if he failed to surrender.
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