State Capture: Commission requests two-year jail term for Jacob Zuma

The State Capture Commission of inquiry has filed an urgent application to the Constitutional Court on Monday 22 February requesting that former President Jacob Zuma be jailed for two years. 

Zuma’s refusal to appear at the Commission despite it having obtained a court order instructing him to so from the Constitutional Court sparked fury, and now the Commission is seeking justice for what they consider to be contempt epitomised. 

SCI requests two-year sentence for former President.  

The commission’s secretary Itumeleng Mosala said that Zuma had committed a plethora of offences, including his failure to rock up and undergo questioning relating to his role in alleged state looting during his tenure as president, failing to submit affidavits requested by the Commission, and making defamatory, unsubstantiated accusations against the integrity of the Commission. 

The application also requested that Police Minister Bheki Cele and his National Police Commissioner Sethole do their utmost to ensure that Zuma is held to his court mandated obligations, and they have also requested that he be held accountable for the legal costs relating to the saga. 

The application states that Zuma “intentionally and unlawfully failed or refused to furnish the Commission with affidavits in compliance with the directives issued by the Chairperson of the Commission”. These affidavits related to testimony regarding alleged corruption at the Passenger Rail Authority of South Africa (PRASA) and embattled power supplier Eskom.

Zuma lashes out against detractors and SA’s courts 

Zuma lashed out at judges after the Constitutional Court brought the order against him, and on Sunday delivered a now ironic jab at South Africa’s prosecuting capabilities, which he said are “not biting enough”

“For an example, today, if I commit a crime, if I kill a somebody in front of all of you, the laws of this country say you can’t say this person is being arrested or charged because he’s killed a person, it says we must say we suspect this man has killed this person. That’s the softness of the law,” he said. 

This is a developing story.