Jacob Zuma gets prison term for contempt of court: What ex-RSA president is accused of, role of Gupta brothers

In this Oct. 15, 2019 file photo, former South African President Jacob Zuma appears in the High Court in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. AP

Former South African president Jacob Zuma refused to surrender himself to police by Sunday after the country’s highest court sentenced him to 15 months imprisonment for contempt.

Ignoring efforts to defuse a tense stand-off, Zuma told hundreds of supporters gathered outside his rural estate that he is appealing his 15-month prison sentence and impending arrest by police.

Hundreds of Zuma’s supporters including some who traveled more than 400 kilometers (250 miles), gathered outside Zuma’s sprawling Nkandla compound, in the rural KwaZulu-Natal province, vowing to prevent any attempts to arrest Zuma.

Top officials of the ruling African National Congress party have gone to KwaZulu-Natal to try to reduce tensions and to encourage Zuma to comply with the court orders and avoid any violent confrontations.

Zuma’s supporters remained defiant Sunday. Clad in ANC regalia bearing Zuma’s portrait and T-shirts with the question in Zulu “Wenzeni uZuma?” (“What has Zuma done?”) They sang songs praising Zuma as a hero of the 1980s struggle against white minority rule, known as apartheid.

The supporters defied South Africa’s COVID-19 regulations, in which wearing masks is compulsory and all social and political gatherings are prohibited.

Why was Zuma being sentenced to prison?

• Zuma has been found guilty of contempt of court and sentenced to 15 months in prison for defying a court order to appear before an inquiry probing wide-ranging allegations of corruption during his tenure from 2009 to 2018.
• Last week, South Africa’s top court, the Constitutional Court, sentenced Zuma to prison for defying a court order that he should testify before a commission investigating allegations of rampant corruption when he was president from 2009 to 2018.
• Several witnesses, including former Cabinet ministers and top executives of State-owned corporations, have testified about Zuma’s wrongdoing including allowing his associates, the Gupta family, to influence his Cabinet appointments and lucrative State contracts.
• However, Zuma did not turn himself into authorities within five days, as the court ruling had ordered, and now faces arrest by police.
• Addressing his supporters earlier this week, Zuma reiterated that he is not afraid of being jailed since he had been imprisoned before, being incarcerated by the apartheid regime for 10 years on Robben Island.

“I am not afraid of going to jail. I went to prison fighting for freedom and rights and it looks like I will have to start from scratch and fight for freedom again,” said Zuma in the Zulu language.

“There is nobody who can come and take these rights away from me just because they think they understand the law. Those I fought for this freedom with would turn in their graves,” said Zuma.

Zuma has launched several court actions to avoid imprisonment. On Friday, he filed an application with the Constitutional Court to rescind his sentence, which the court will hear on 12 July. “We have written to the Constitutional Court and applied that this sentence is rescinded or reduced, and we have now been given a date to go and state our case,” said Zuma.

On Tuesday Zuma will apply for an interdict to stop the police from arresting him, his foundation has announced.

On the other hand, South African prosecutors on Monday announced a key step in their bid to extradite Indian-born brothers who were allegedly at the centre of a massive web of corruption.

Who are the Gupta brothers and how are they related to the case?

At the centre of this long-running probe into the embezzlement of state assets under Zuma are three Indian brothers — Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta.

In a statement, the prosecution authority’s chief investigator, Hermione Cronje, said Interpol had issued a “red notice” against two of the brothers, Atul and Rajesh.

Red notices are a global alert enabling law enforcers to arrest a person sought for prosecution or serving a sentence and detain them pending extradition.

• The three brothers are at the centre of a 2016 graft report by South Africa’s anti-corruption watchdog, which claims they paid bribes in exchange for massive state contracts and influence ministerial appointments.
• They fled South Africa shortly after a judicial commission started in 2018 and are suspected to be in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
• Last month South Africa said it was close to finalising an extradition treaty with the UAE.
• The third brother, Ajay, who is not named in the red notice, is part of a separate case, Cronje’s office said.
• His siblings Atul and Rajesh Gupta are being sought in connection with a $1.76 million contract paid to a Gupta-linked company, Nulane Investments, to conduct an agricultural feasibility study, it said.
• The red notice also applies to Atul Gupta’s wife Chetali.
• This alert came as Zuma sought to avoid jail after he was sentenced to 15 months in jail for contempt after failing to appear before anti-corruption investigators.

With inputs from AP and AFP