Ex-South African President, Jacob Zuma Finally Surrenders To Police

South Africa’s ex-president Jacob Zuma handed himself in to police late Wednesday to begin serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court, his foundation said.

“Please be advised that President Zuma has decided to comply with the incarceration order. He is on his way to hand himself into a Correctional Services Facility in KZN” (Kwazulu-Natal province), the foundation tweeted.

The Constitutional Court, the nation’s highest judicial body, had sentenced Zuma to 15 months in prison for failing to appear before a commission investigating corruption accusations against him.

The court had given him five days to present himself to the authorities.

But Zuma, 79, who had initially vowed to resist arrest, was said to have voluntarily surrendered before a midnight deadline from the police.

A convoy of cars believed to be carrying Zuma drove out of his homestead about 40 minutes before the cut-off for him to give himself up.

Zuma had mounted a last-ditch legal defence and refused to turn himself in by Sunday night as the court ordered. Under the ruling, police were given three days to arrest him if he failed to surrender.

In a letter earlier on Wednesday he had pleaded with the court for an 11th-hour reprieve.

The former president has continued to insist that all charges are the product of a political witch hunt.

–AFP