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JOHANNESBURG. – Former president Jacob Zuma was in “high spirits” yesterday, a day after the country’s top court handed him a 15-month jail sentence, an aide said.
In an unprecedented ruling, the Constitutional Court on Tuesday convicted Zuma for “egregious” and “aggravated” contempt of court after he refused to appear before graft investigators.
If Zuma fails to turn himself in by Sunday, police will be ordered to arrest him and take him to prison.
But his close associates said Zuma’s morale was good and his famously jovial energy was undimmed.
“He is in high spirits, bouncing like a tennis ball,” his spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi told AFP. “If it was me, I would have lost appetite, he has not lost appetite.”
“I think the reason he is like that is that his soul is intact, his conscience is intact,” he added.
His lawyers are still formulating a response to the ruling.
Zuma, 79, is separately facing 16 charges of fraud, graft and racketeering relating to a 1999 purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and military gear from five European arms firms for R30 billion then the equivalent of nearly US$5 billion. – AFP
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