Former President Jacob Zuma has asked the Constitutional Court to “reconsider” its 15-month sentence against him, citing health concerns among other reasons.
Zuma has filed the papers to the apex court on Friday ahead of Sunday’s deadline to hand himself over to a police station in Nkandla or Johannesburg where he has homes.
He’s been found guilty of being in contempt of a court ruling that he must appear and participate at the state capture commission.
In a 34-page affidavit, Zuma asks the country’s apex court to “reassess whether it has acted within the Constitution, or erroneously, beyond the powers vested in the court by the Constitution.”
In strongly worded court papers, he tells the country’s most senior judges that he does seek any sympathy from them but asks that they assess his rescission application “with a sense of fairness and impartiality”.
Zuma details to the court that he is a 79-year-old man who suffers from a medical condition that requires constant and intense therapy and attention.
He said if the court agreed to entertain his application, his medical condition should be considered as one of the reasons why he should not be imprisoned, especially in the current context of the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
In a scathing judgement against Zuma this week, the Constitutional Court noted that he had been given ample opportunity to cooperate with the court but failed to do so.
