Picture: Emmanuel Croset/AFP
Faizel Patel – 08/07/2021
Political analyst Dirk Kotze says Jacob Zuma ran out of time to stay out of jail.
Kotze was speaking to Radio Islam after Zuma handed himself over to police after he could not secure a last-minute reprieve.
Zuma was taken to the Estcourt Correctional Centre shortly before midnight and was set to go through admission processes.
Justice Minister Ronald Lamola says Zuma was in the hospital section of the 512-bed prison and he would be placed in isolation for the first 14 days in line with COVID-19 regulations.
His legal team made a desperate attempt to prevent his incarceration by writing to the Constitutional Court – despite the ConCourt already being closed by 16h30 with no-one there to receive the letter.
Kotze says Zuma’s lawyers had to look at alternative means to keep him out of prison but failed.
“I think what they did at the end, is in a sense, a sort of an acknowledgement that possibly his strategy was the wrong one and that they went to the wrong court and that they should have approached the Constitutional Court from the start. But even the hearing that will take place on Monday, I think after these developments now might be something which is not actually going to make any impact on this I suppose.”
Kotze says it is presumed that Zuma would be incarcerated in a separate wing away from the rest of the prison inmates.
He says it was “by design” that President Cyril Ramaphosa stayed silent on the whole Zuma matter.
“We have to make it to the public and to everyone very visible that this is not a political process. President Zuma on the other hand wanted it to be a political process, he wanted political involvement or political negotiations or talks or so-called political solution to be used and that was the very opposite of President Ramaphosa’s approach.”
Kotze says Zuma’s imprisonment is politically exceptionally significant.
“What it will mean is that psychologically almost it is point of no return for President Zuma, it means that in a sense he has lost his resolve, his case against the judiciary and judicial systems and criminal justice systems.”
Kotze says imprisonment also does not bid well for his supporters, the RET factions including the likes of Ace Magashbule and Tony Yengeni.
Lamola says Zuma would be eligible for parole when he served a quarter of his 15-month sentence.
Listen to the interview with Dirk Kotze
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