Zuma expected to make stay of arrest application at Pietermaritzburg High Court

The High Court in Pietermaritzburg is today expected to hear former president Jacob Zuma’s urgent application for a stay of his arrest pending his application in the Constitutional Court next week.

VIDEO: Karyn Maughan,  legal journalist at News 24, shares more:

The Constitutional Court will hear Zuma’s rescission application on Monday next week. The Constitutional Court sentenced Zuma to 15 months imprisonment for ignoring its ruling that he continue his testimony before the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

The founding affidavit to the Pietermaritzburg High Court argues that the court hears the matter on the basis that Zuma is domiciled within the court’s area of jurisdiction.

Zuma was supposed to have handed himself over to authorities at midnight on Sunday, to start serving his 15-month sentence for contempt of court. In a media briefing at the weekend, the embattled former president argued that it was his right to choose not to appear before Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, reiterating his view that Zondo was biased against him.

Jail term like a death sentence

Meanwhile, the former president has compared his 15-month jail term to a death sentence.

He made the comment during a media briefing at his home at Nkandla in northern KwaZulu-Natal on Sunday night.

VIDEO: Zuma’s media briefing:

This was after a weekend in which thousands of pro-Zuma supporters defied lockdown regulations and gathered outside his home to protest against the sentence.

Zuma says he is at high risk due to his medical condition and age.

“Sending me to jail during the height of a pandemic at my age is the same as sentencing me to death. The death sentence was declared unconstitutional in South Africa in 1995 as a result of my own sacrifices and those of millions of South Africans,” says the former President.

He also claims that he was sentenced without trial.