Cape Town [South Africa] July 8 (ANI): Former South African president Jacob Zuma on Wednesday handed himself over to the police to serve a 15-month prison sentence.
On Tuesday, the top court had ordered to arrest Zuma in case he failed to appear for his charges before July 4. Just before Midnight, Zuma was admitted to the Estcourt Correctional Center near his home in KwaZulu-Natal province, CNN reported citing the Department of Correctional Services.
South Africa’s top court also ruled that former President Jacob Zuma was in contempt of court and handed him a sentence of 15 months imprisonment for defying court orders to appear before a corruption investigation spanning nine years of his term.

Zuma led South Africa for nearly a third of its post-apartheid history and was an associate of Nelson Mandela’s during the freedom struggle. During his term, corruption had become so entrenched that the allegations against him are termed as ‘state capture’.
He is being prosecuted separately on charges of racketeering, corruption, fraud and money laundering stemming from a deal with a French arms manufacturer in which he allegedly took bribes while he was deputy president in 1999.
Zuma had lost an internal party election of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to current president Cyril Ramaphosa in 2017 after a bitter internal battle nearly split the storied liberation party in two.
Ramaphosa campaigned partly on an anti-corruption platform and has since fired ministers and heads of state-owned institutions that he asserted were being mismanaged and taken aim at top officials within the party, forcing them to step down and face charges similar to Zuma‘s. (ANI)

72 killed in stampede during shopping mall looting in South Africa

72 people have been killed in a stampede during the looting of a shopping mall in the South African province of Gauteng, as a wave of violent protests against the incarceration of former President Jacob Zuma grips the country, media reported on Tuesday.
The Eyewitness News portal reported, citing Gauteng Premier David Makhura, that a total of 20 people had been killed in the unrest in the region, including 11 in the stampede.
“This looting and violence is something that needs to stop,” Makhura said, as quoted by the media outlet.

The official has arrived at the police department of the district, where the tragedy unfolded.
Protests erupted on Friday night following the news of the ex-president’s jailing. The first waves of unrest began in Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal and have since spilled over to South Africa‘s economic capital of Johannesburg in Gauteng. The protests were accompanied by looting and vandalism. On Monday, the government dispatched the troops to quell the unrest.

Despite President Cyril Ramaphosa‘s order to deploy troops to quell the unrest, the death toll due to violence in South Africa, following the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma, has risen to 72 on Tuesday.
“The total number of people who have lost their lives since the beginning of these protests …has risen to 72,” police said in a statement, reported Al Jazeera.
Crowds clashed with police and ransacked or burned shopping malls in South Africa due to grievances unleashed by the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma.

Zuma, 79, was sentenced last month for defying a constitutional court order to give evidence at an inquiry investigating high-level corruption during his nine years in office until 2018.
The decision to jail him resulted from legal proceedings seen as a test of post-apartheid South Africa’s ability to enforce the rule of law, including against powerful politicians, reported Al Jazeera.
The violence worsened as Zuma challenged his 15-month jail term in South Africa’s top court.

Zuma, 79, turned himself in last Wednesday to begin serving a 15-month sentence he was handed for contempt of court after skipping a corruption trial.