WeeklySA_AdminDEFIANT:A suspended sentence will result in further defiance.
By Monk Nkomo
AFTER being lambasted for his scurrilous and defamatory statements and subsequently jailed for 15 months by the Constitutional Court for contempt, former President, Jacob Zuma will continue receiving all his financial benefits, including his monthly pension while in prison .
This is according to legal experts who were interviewed by Weekly SA Mirror shortly after Acting Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Sisi Khampepe ruled that Zuma had defied the Constitutional Court order as well as the Zondo Commission’s summonses to appear before it.
‘’ Mr. Zuma has earned himself a punitive sanction of direct and unsuspended committal’’, Khampepe said.
Following concerns that Zuma might lose his financial State benefits, lawyers who spoke on condition of anonymity for professional reasons, said Zuma was fully entitled to these benefits as he had accrued them while working for the governmen.
‘’This case has nothing to do with this case of contempt of court. He did not steal any money or committed any fraud to necessitate the freezing of his financial assets. He deserves to continue receiving all those benefits’’, the lawyers said. He accrued these benefits while working for State.
In a unanimous decision delivered this week, Khampepe lashed at the former President and said he had demonstrated a marked disregard for the authority of the Constitutional Court and was resolute in his refusal to participate in the Zondo Commission’s proceedings.
‘’ It is unbecoming and irresponsible of a person in Mr. Zuma’s position to wilfully undermine the law in this way. Mr. Zuma had every right and opportunity to defend his rights, but he chose, time and again, to publicly reject and vilify the Judiciary entirely’’, Khampepe said.
There was no sound or logical basis on which Zuma could claim to have been treated unfairly or victimized by this court. ‘’His attempts to evoke public sympathy through such allegations fly in the face of reason.’’ Addressing the plea to give Zuma a suspended sentence, Khampepe ruled that a coercive order would be both futile and inappropriate in these circumstances.
’’ Coercive committal, through a suspended sentence, uses the threat of imprisonment to compel compliance. Yet, it is inconvertible that Mr. Zuma has no intention of attending the Commission having repeatedly reiterated that he would rather be committed to imprisonment than to co-operate with the Commision or comply with the order of this Court. ‘’Accordingly, a suspended sentence , being a coercive order, would yield nothing.’’
