South African police await further court orders on Zuma’s arrest

South Africa’s police minister said on Monday he was awaiting court instructions on whether to arrest ex-President Jacob Zuma, who was sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt.

Last week, the country’s highest court convicted Zuma of contempt and ordered him to surrender by the end of Sunday to begin his sentence. If he didn’t, the police would be asked to arrest him within three days.

But Zuma filed a final request for a halt to the execution of the arrest order on Friday. The request will be heard Tuesday before a tribunal de grande instance.

“We hope that we will get some clarification, because when we received the instruction, no further legal activity was taking place,” Police Minister Bheki Cele said on Monday.

Zuma, 79, also asked the Constitutional Court to reconsider and overturn its decision to imprison him. This challenge will be heard on July 12.

Speaking from his rural home on Sunday evening, Zuma said he would not surrender to police on time due to pending court claims.

I “don’t need to go to jail today,” he said at his property in Nkandla, Kwa-Zulu Natal province, where hundreds of his supporters are camping out in solidarity.

“They cannot accept papers and expect me to go to jail,” he said, referring to his court challenge to the sentence.

The provocative politician has repeatedly attacked the judiciary and has not hesitated to take it out again.

“I am very worried that South Africa is rapidly returning to an apartheid-type regime,” he said.

“I am facing long detention without trial,” he said. “Sending me to jail at the height of a pandemic, at my age, is like sentencing me to death.”

The Constitutional Court, in a landmark ruling last week, sentenced Zuma to 15 months after snubbing a judicial inquiry into the theft of state assets under his tenure.

His nine years in office were marred by scandals and allegations of corruption, ending disastrously in 2018 when he was kicked out by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and replaced as president by Cyril Ramaphosa.

Despite his notoriety, he enjoys the support of many core ANC members, who recall his sacrifice in the fight against apartheid, during which he spent 10 years on Robben Island.