Zuma’s detention pending ConCourt decision is ‘cruel and degrading’, says Mpofu

Jacob Zuma’s legal representative, advocate Dali Mpofu, says the former president should be released from prison, pending the Constitutional Court’s decision on his rescission application.

Mpofu told the justices of the Constitutional Court on Monday that it would be “cruel and degrading punishment” for Zuma to remain behind bars while he waits for the decision.

“Former president Zuma is not a flight risk. It is just a cruel and degrading punishment for him to remain there (prison), while waiting for the outcome, which may or may not be favourable to him,” Mpofu said on Monday.

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“He is a 79-year-old person, who suffers from comorbidities, and we know the state of the health in the country at the moment, and as we said before, he is always in the custody of law enforcement.”

“It would just be vindictiveness for any party to suggest that he should wait for the outcome while he is sitting there. We don’t expect that anybody would be callous,” Mpofu said.

Zuma is seeking a rescission of the contempt ruling made against him by the Constitutional Court. The former president is currently in prison, serving a 15-month sentence. Zuma was found in contempt of court after he defied the apex court’s ruling that he appear before the Zondo Commission to answer questions.

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On Monday, Mpofu told the court there was no evidence that Zuma would not appear before the commission.

“On the contrary, there is evidence that he is a willing participant,” he said. “Can this court go as far as to say Mr Zuma must be forced to appear, even if he thinks the person is biased? No, it can’t.”

Mpofu also said the term of the Zondo Commission had been extended and “therefore, all things being equal, he can appear.”

Mpofu said:Nobody has brought any evidence to refute the evidence in the founding affidavit of former president Zuma that he is willing to go and that [he] concedes it might require him having to ask for interim relief. Speaking for myself, I won’t say I have instructions on that; that is exactly what I would advise him to do.

“It would be either to go to the commission, but if he feels strongly that he should not go there, then follow the route of the law. If the court says he would have to go, then he would have to go,” he said.

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“For the past 20 years, he is a person who has been obeying the rules of the court and he does not subscribe to the notion that anybody is above the law. If he did, he would not be going in and out of courts for the past 20 years,” Mpofu added.

On Friday, the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg dismissed a bid by the former president to have his arrest order stayed until the rescission application before the apex court was concluded, News24 reported.

Judge Jerome Mnguni found Zuma had approached the wrong court in his challenge of the ruling by the apex court.