Zuma handed himself in to police on Wednesday to begin his jail term at a prison in KwaZulu-Natal.
“Be strong now because things will get better. It might be stormy now, but it can’t rain forever,” Ace Magashule.
“The darkest night is just before the light, be strong, be brave together we will rise,” Zandile Gumede wrote.
“However difficult this is. My sympathies lie with citizens who tonight are without jobs, healthcare, education due to the unabated corruption that the ANC advanced through Jacob Zuma. SA must rise & uphold its constitution. This too shall pass, we must have constitutional future!” Mmusi Maimane said.
Mzobe told TimesLIVE in the early hours of Thursday: “We are OK, because at least he handed himself over and no-one was hurt in the process. We were worried about the activities that were taking place outside the gate, but we are OK now. It is what it is. That is the world that we are living in.”
“Can you imagine, from president to prisoner? It is unbelievable,” said the source, who would only reveal that Zuma is their uncle.
“The ambulance that came in was for MaKhumalo. It came to attend her because when she heard the news [that Zuma was handing herself over] she might have suffered from the shock because she was OK earlier,” the relative said.
South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma will be eligible for parole after four months of his 15-month jail sentence for contempt of court, the justice minister says.
- 2005: Charged with raping family friend – acquitted in 2006
- 2005: Charged with corruption over multi-billion dollar 1999 arms deal – charges dropped shortly before he becomes president in 2009
- 2016: Court orders he should be charged with 18 counts of corruption over the deal – he appeals, but in 2017 loses a bid to overturn them
- 2016: Court rules he breached his oath of office by using government money to upgrade private home in Nkandla – he repays the money
- 2017: Public protector says he should appoint judge-led inquiry into allegations he profiteered from relationship with wealthy Gupta family – he denies allegations, as do the Guptas
- 2018: Zuma approves inquiry into claims of state looting
- 2018: The National Prosecuting Authority confirms Zuma will face prosecution for 12 charges of fraud, one of racketeering, two of corruption, and one of money laundering, relating to the arms deal, which he denies
- 2021: Begins a 15-month jail sentence after the Constitutional Court orders his arrest for refusing to testify at the commission into state looting
