South African Former President Zuma Condemned For Defying Top Court

A large group of former prominent anti-Apartheid activists and leaders from religious, civil society, business and labour organisations have launched a campaign to defend South Africa’s Constitution and democracy and prevent the country from becoming a failed state.

They include Reverend Frank Chikane, a top aide to former President Thabo Mbeki, former Minister Sipho Pityana, and Cheryl Carolus. They have strongly condemned former President Jacob Zuma’s defiance of the Constitutional Court.

Zuma publicly defied the order to appear before a graft commission chaired by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, citing personal relations with him.

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Zondo rejected this claim, saying they barely knew each other, and called on the highest court in the land to impose a two-year jail term on the former president to send a strong message and ensure no-one copied his antics.

The activists have called for protests on 25 March when the Constitutional Court will hear an application from the Zondo Commission to have Zuma declared in contempt of the Commission.

Former ambassador Sheila Sisulu said Zuma’s “astonishing defiance not only violates the law but assails the Constitution itself.”

She said “disparate parties directly implicated in the state capture project have been enlisted to amplify Zuma’s unlawful defiance of the Constitutional Court”. (PANA/NAN)