Kenya Insights

Tag: Jacob Zuma

  • Jacob Zuma Cleared To Run In South Africa’s Election

    Jacob Zuma Cleared To Run In South Africa’s Election

    South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma is free to run in May’s general election after an electoral court overturned a ban on his candidacy.

    Last month the electoral commission barred him over a contempt of court conviction.

    It argued the constitution prevented people from holding public office if convicted of a crime and sentenced to more than 12 months in prison.

    Mr Zuma, 81, has been campaigning for the new uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party.

    A former stalwart of the governing African National Congress (ANC), he is a controversial figure and served as president from 2009 until 2018, when he had to step down because of corruption allegations.

    He was sentenced to 15 months in jail in 2021 for failing to testify in a corruption investigation, though he only served three months on health grounds.

    The ruling could have a significant impact on the outcome of next month’s election.

    Mr Zuma is the face of a newly formed MK opposition party, which is named after the ANC’s former military wing.

    The ex-president sees himself as the true heir to the revolutionary roots of ANC, once led by Nelson Mandela.

    Mr Zuma’s court victory means he can now run as the MK’s leading candidate.

    Rather than voting directly for a president, South Africans elect members of the National Assembly. The head of whichever party can muster a majority is likely to become the country’s leader, though it could put forward another candidate.

    The ruling will also be a blow to the ANC, which after 30 years in power, faces a potentially bruising election.

    For the first time since the start of the democratic era in 1994, the ANC’s vote share could fall below 50%, several opinion polls predict.

    The MK party is seen as popular in Mr Zuma’s home region of KwaZulu-Natal.

    (BBC)

  • Inside Zuma’s last minute plea to avoid incarceration

    Inside Zuma’s last minute plea to avoid incarceration

    South Africa’s ex- president Jacob Zuma has made a last minute plea to the Constitutional Court, which sentenced him to 15 months in jail over contempt earlier in the week, to avoid that sentence.

    Zuma aligned himself with the two court Justices who adopted a dissenting view his sentencing as he filed an urgent application in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg to avoid incarceration through a stay of arrest.

    The former South Africa leader has made the move two days to the expiry of his deadline to surrender to the authorities as ruling African National Congress (ANC) party’s ‘military veterans association’ matched outside his home in KwaZulu-Natal Province where they vowed to ‘peacefully’ prevent his arrest at all costs.

    Former South African president Jacob Zuma filing papers at the Constitutional Court [p/courtesy]
    Zuma is relying on the view of the two dissent Justices who argued that he should not be directly jailed by the highest court in the land in his  appeal to the Constitutional Court.

    The former president also complained of poor health, claiming that life behind bars would put him in jeopardy. He also clarified that he did not walk out on Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s state capture commission but he had to leave to take his medication.

    Zuma’s appeal for rescission to the Concourt is coming at the time when the Acting Chief Justice Sisi Khampepe has already signed his committal order indicating he is scheduled to serve his jail term at the Westville Prison in KwaZulu-Natal.

    His supporters who have pitched camp outside his home have been hostile to the media as they don headgears and t-shirts with a phrase questioning the offense Zumas has committed.

     “We shall see what happens when that time comes, we shall see,” one of the supporters said.

    Tension was witnessed last month in KwaZulu-Natal when ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe tried to take the podium and the meeting turned into chaos with unruly delegates from ANC branches and regions chanting “Wenzeni uZuma”, (Zulu phrase meaning “What did Zuma do?).