Former South African President Zuma surrenders to police

Earlier today, the police department said it felt compelled to arrest Zuma before midnight. The failure to arrest, as long as there was no postponement order for Zuma’s sentence, would have been in contempt of the Constitutional Court.

Nine year president

In the end, Zuma arrived 40 minutes before the deadline itself, The New York Times reported. He was transported from his home to the police station by a long convoy, as can be seen in images on social media (see below). The country’s police minister and police chief could be charged if they had not arrested Zuma.

Previously, the ex-president appeared to be on the run for the time being. At the end of last month, the Constitutional Court sentenced Zuma to 15 months in prison for refusing to testify before a commission of inquiry into corruption under his nine-year presidency.

Corruption scandals

Zuma showed up to the committee once last year, but after that first time he accused the president of being biased. Earlier this year, Zuma refused to appear before the committee again. By the way, the committee was created by Zuma himself, after coming under increasing pressure as chairman due to corruption scandals.

Zuma is said to have made lucrative deals with business friends during his presidency. Apparently, sometimes they were even allowed to choose which ministers Zuma appointed to his cabinet. It is estimated that $ 35 billion (€ 29.5 billion) of public money has been embezzled. Zuma denies the charges and says he did nothing wrong.