Director of Accountability Now Paul Hoffman joins BizNews founder Alec Hogg on the Power Hour, dissecting the ins and outs of Jacob Zuma’s fifteen month prison sentence handed down by the Constitutional Court. Paul explains that it is no done deal that Zuma sees the back of a prison cell given all the complexities at play. – Justin Rowe-Roberts
Paul Hoffman on the complexities in Zuma’s sentence:Â
Although I think it was a big day for accountability and everyone is rather pleased that the majority in the Constitutional Court stood up to be counted, getting Jacob Zuma into the jail is another matter altogether. His daughter is saying he would prefer to be incarcerated closer to Nkandla and that they will all go to the Estcourt prison with him. Whereas his son Edward is saying ‘over my dead body’ will my father go to prison. It remains to be seen whether the ANC will be able to muster the necessary political will to get the commissioner of police to actually intervene and arrest him if he does not present himself at the Nkandla police station.
On whether Zuma’s sentence is a done deal or not:Â
The children are giving contradictory messages which doesn’t make it any easier. Jacob Zuma has been great at playing the victim card and if he is advised that because he is a non-violent offender whose been given a sentence of less than two years that he will be out granted he serves a court review sentence, provided he behaves himself and is a good prisoner then he may decide that politically there’s more milage to be made by becoming the victim of the system to such an extent that he spends a couple of months in jail.
On the serial looting during the Zuma era:Â
He was a big player in the arms deal. He was basically getting protection money from one of the successful sub-contractors after the deal was done. The people that got the big bribes there were on the procurement committee and he wasn’t on those. There’s no doubt he was a central character with the Guptas.
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