How top court stared Zuma down

A year has passed since the Constitutional Court ordered that former President Jacob Zuma be sent to jail for contempt of its ruling that he appear before the State Capture Inquiry. Zuma had refused to appear at the State Capture Inquiry on any of the five days on which he was subpoenaed to be there and failed to file any affidavits at the inquiry despite being ordered to do so by then Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. In an interview with News24, recently retired Justice Sisi Khampepe explains why that judgment, which she wrote, was essential to protecting the rule of law in South Africa. Khampepe was herself subjected to threats and misogynistic attacks because of that ruling. Had the court been intimidated into not jailing Zuma for contempt, ‘we could in all honesty not call ourselves a constitutional democracy founded on the rule of law’, she said. Khampepe revealed that she had been threatened after she wrote the apex court's majority ruling that sentenced Zuma to 15 months in prison for refusing to comply with its order that he appear before the State Capture Inquiry. Zuma's imprisonment was followed by eight days of violence and looting that left 350 people dead and caused billions of rands in damage to businesses and properties. ‘Of course, all the Constitutional Court justices were aware of the political nature of the case and the fact that the country was watching,’ Khampepe said. She added that Zuma believed he could test the limits of the judiciary ‘and I believe the judiciary demonstrated that nobody is above the law…we are all equal before it’.