Staff Reporter
The state capture commission has asked the Constitutional Court to sentence former president Jacob Zuma to two years in prison for contempt of court.
This after Zuma failed to turn up at the commission last week despite a summons and an order from the ConCourt to do so.
In an urgent application to the ConCourt on Monday, the commission’s secretary, Professor Itumeleng Mosala, said Zuma has committed several contemptuous acts, namely failing to turn up when summoned to, failing to file affidavits as per the ConCourt’s order, and “scurrilous statements” made against the highest court in the land and the entire judiciary.
Mosala described Zuma’s actions as “no ordinary case of contempt”.
The commission said it was concerned with the public statements made by Zuma after the ConCourt’s judgment in which he attacked judges, saying some had betrayed their oaths of office for political expediency.
Mosala said Zuma’s conduct was “calculated to undermine the integrity of this court and the judiciary in general”.
The commission’s secretary also said the sentence should to reflect the expectation of society that a person in a leadership position “with immense influence” like Zuma “should comply with the law rather than displaying contempt of the law”.
More to follow . . .
