Well, well, well. ConCourt hasn’t just thrown the book at Jacob Zuma on Tuesday. They’ve chucked the whole bloody library at him. In an outstanding moment of judicial bravery, the bench agreed that the former president should serve a total of 15 months in prison – handing down an UNSUSPENDED sentence.
Of course, you are likely to see a whole lot of shenanigans over the next few days. But the weight of this judgment is enormous. The highest court in the land has sentenced Msholozi to spend over a year behind bars. If all goes to plan, JZ could be forcibly arrested and processed by law enforcement officials today.
ConCourt rips into Msholozi
Judge Khampepe went to town on Jacob Zuma, explaining why she was dishing out a significant punishment. She called his behaviour intolerable, and slammed the one-time head of state for repeatedly attacking the judiciary.
“Unfounded attacks on the courts cannot be met with impunity. Zuma’s attacks on the judiciary are not substantiated and are not tolerable in our democratic dispensation. The majority finds itself with little choice but to send a message that this type of “recalcitrance and defiance is unlawful and will be punished.”
“This case is exceptional. Not in that Zuma is being treated exceptionally – but that the matrix of factors requires an exceptional sanction. Unfounded attacks on the courts cannot be met with impunity. Zuma’s attacks on the judiciary are not substantiated and are not tolerable in our democratic dispensation”
“The majority judgment holds that the Zuma is no ordinary litigant, but a political figure who holds great power and who could instigate others to disregard the rule of law. The ConCourt has in the past said there is a heightened responsibility on those who once held the highest office in the country to uphold the rule of law.”
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