Jacob Zuma’s legal woes are not over yet

Jacob Zuma spent his first night behind bars on yesterday. Researcher and political analyst Asanda Ngoasheng said she hoped this would be a wake-up call for him.

“I hope this arrest will make him take the law in general more seriously than he has in the past,” she said.

“He is still facing corruption charges … so his legal woes are not over just yet.”

Ngoasheng added the ANC brand was tarnished.

“The ANC was the biggest loser because they allowed their own internal fights to spill over into the threat of political instability for the country.

“They will pay for this with even less numbers in the next election.”

Although Zuma was the first former SA president to be imprisoned, this was not new for countries such as Zimbabwe, France and the Philippines.

King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo was the first monarch to be sent to prison – for kidnapping a woman and her six children, setting their home on fire and beating up four youths, one of whom later died, because one of their relatives failed to present himself before his traditional court.Canaan Banana, Zimbabwe’s first post-independence president, was found guilty in 1999 of 11 counts of sodomy and abuse of power, and was jailed for a year.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was the first former president in France to receive a custodial sentence for attempting to bribe a judge.

Former Guatemalan president Alvaro Colom was arrested in 2018 as part of a local corruption investigation that looked at buses bought during his administration for a large public transport programme.

Former prime minister of Tajikistan Abdumalik Abdullayevich Abdullajanov was arrested in Ukraine in 2013 for crimes which included terrorism, attempted murder and establishing a criminal group.

Argentine Reynaldo Bignone died while serving a number of sentences for crimes against humanity.

Aslan Abashidze, former president of Adjara, was handed a 15-year sentence for the murder of his deputy, Nodar Imnadze, and for the formation of an illegal armed group.