No delegation visited Zuma in prison, says his foundation

The Jacob Zuma foundation has dismissed claims that former president Jacob Zuma was visited by a delegation in prison.

This is after reports suggested that the delegation went to the Estcourt Correctional Centre in KwaZulu-Natal, where Zuma is currently serving his prison sentence in an effort to discuss the former president’s release.

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However, the foundation has since rejected the reports.

“The foundation has received spurious reports about some supposed delegation that claims to have visited [former] president Zuma at the prison in Estcourt today. All such reports must be dismissed as fake. [Former] president Zuma is committed to the rescission application at the ConCourt,” the foundation said in a tweet.

Zuma was slapped with a 15-month jail sentence when he was found guilty of contempt of court by the Constitutional Court on 29 June for failing to comply with the court’s ruling for him to appear before the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture.

After a week of a will-he-or-won’t-he, Zuma eventually capitulated and decided to hand himself over to the authorities having initially refused to do.

‘Release Zuma’

The former president still seeks to have his imprisonment cancelled by the Constitutional Court after he approached the apex court with a rescission application.

On Monday, the application came before the Constitutional Court, where advocate Dali Mpofu SC, representing Zuma, asked the court to release the former president pending its decision on his rescission application.

Mpofu argued that the Constitutional Court had taken three months to hand down the ruling at the heart of the case, in which the court sentenced Zuma to jail.

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The move comes after the Pietermaritzburg High Court last week dismissed an urgent application to stay his detention. 

The state capture commission has asked the Constitutional Court to dismiss with costs Zuma’s rescission application.

Zuma’s incarceration has since triggered widespread riots, notably in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, with the death toll from the riots in both provinces rising to 72, while a total of 1,234 people had been arrested as of Tuesday.

Additional reporting by Bernadette Wicks