The highest court in South Africa has upheld the ruling to have former president Jacob Zuma imprisoned for 15 months.
The court on Friday accused Zuma of “litigious skullduggery” in a scathing ruling that accused him of undermining the courts in his bid to have the court cancel his imprisonment order.
The 79-year old is serving a 15-month jail term for contempt of court after he ignored to appear before the judges who were probing a corruption case while he was still in office.
Zuma was placed in custody in July after surrendering himself to the authorities, a move that sparked violence in his home province Kwa-zulu and Gauteng province.
The violence was the worst to ever be witnessed since the end of apartheid leading to over 200 deaths.
About 2,554 arrests were made since the start of the violent protests and looting according to South African officials.
The case however does not affect Zuma’s release on medical parole earlier this month, which sparked an uproar amid allegations of irregularities in the parole process.
Zuma had send an application to the Constitutional Court to cancel the decision to imprison him for refusing to answer questions in the corruption probe.
“The application for recision is dismissed,” said Justice Sisi Khampepe.
“The majority emphatically reject any suggestion that litigants can be allowed to butcher of their own will a judicial process which in all respects has been carried out with the utmost degree of regularity, only to later plead the absent victim,” Khampepe said in his ruling.
Because a court’s orders cannot be appealed, Zuma sought to have it cancelled instead.
The judge however said that his claims were devoid of merit.
Zuma is currently facing a trial on charges of fraud that dates back to 1999 when he was South Africa’s vice president.
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