Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, was taken into custody on Wednesday to begin serving a 15-month prison sentence
He was admitted to Estcourt Correctional Centre in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday after previously refusing to comply with the court order.
During a news conference on Sunday, former President Zuma argued that he was sentenced without a trial and compared his situation to the apartheid struggle. “I have a duty and obligation to ensure that the dignity and respect for our judiciary is not compromised by sentences that remind our people of apartheid days,” he said. He also reiterated to news media that sending someone his age to jail in a pandemic “is the same as sentencing me to death.”
