SA is becoming a ‘constitutional dictatorship’; Zuma speaks out after ConCourt loss

This after the Constitutional Court on Friday gave its verdict on the former president’s rescission application. Zuma had asked the apex court to set aside his 15-month contempt of court jail sentence, which was handed down in June after he failed to comply with the court’s order to appear before the state capture commission.

In a statement released by the Jacob Zuma Foundation on Monday evening, the former president lamented the decision, and accused the court of changing its own rules.

“The Constitutional Court in this case somehow found it fitting to deviate from its own rules and it was again another case of the laws and the constitution being bent and manipulated to specifically deal with Zuma,” he said in the statement.

His legal team announced on Saturday that they would go an uncommon route of taking the fight to the African Court on Human and People’s Rights.

Taking a jab at the judiciary, he said: “It has never has happened that in a dissenting decision of the Constitutional Court that the dissenting judges go as far as accusing their colleagues of acting unconstitutionally.

“It is a very sad day in our history to observe how those we have entrusted with the constitution now consider themselves above the constitution.

“It is my constitutional right to publicly critique judges the same way they have a right to critique me as a politician.”

Zuma said he remained a victim of an emerging “constitutional dictatorship”, and again referred to himself as a political prisoner who was detained without trial.

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