CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, whose nearly ten-year term was tainted by breathtaking corruption scandals, refused to appear on an investigation panel on Monday , raising the possibility that he would be arrested for contempt.
The panel leader, Vice President of Justice Raymond Zondo, said he was seeking an order from the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest court, that “would impose a prison sentence on Mr. Zuma.”
Judge Zondo’s action catapulted the fervent theme of corruption during Mr. Zuma’s tenure, which lasted from 2009 to 2018, in a tense confrontation over the former president’s responsibility. His successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, promised to purge the ruling African National Congress of endemic bribery and bribery problems that seriously undermined his credibility in South Africa, one of the continent’s most important economic powers.
Zuma, 78, was scheduled to appear before the inquiry panel, the State Capture Commission, starting on Monday for a week of testimony about his role in corruption. The former president sent a letter from his lawyers, arguing that he was not legally required to attend.
It was Mr. Zuma who instituted the investigation in 2018, after a report detailing the extent of corruption in state-owned companies and government departments during his administration. In its long-range mandate, the commission questioned more than 250 witnesses.
Mr. Zuma is the first to refuse, demanding that Judge Zondo refuse. Zuma accused the judge of harboring personal vengeance against him and pointed to a distant family relationship. In unusual frustration, Judge Zondo dismissed these claims.
“I just completed 24 years of service as a judge and many litigants came and went and appeared before me, literally thousands in trials, courts of motion and appeals and only Mr. Zuma, of all of them, asked me to refuse,” he said.
It was unclear when the Constitutional Court would rule on Mr. Zondo’s request that Mr. Zuma be punished with imprisonment. Mr. Zuma, who denied any wrongdoing, maintains considerable support within the country, and the possibility of being arrested and imprisoned increased the risk of protests by his supporters.
If the Constitutional Court finds that Mr. Zuma’s behavior does not warrant punishment, it may encourage other witnesses to challenge the corruption investigation and undermine his purpose.
Ramaphosa, Zuma’s former runner-up, took the leadership of the ANC in 2017 after a hard-hitting internal battle. Soon after, he forced Zuma to step down as president, a humiliating defeat that Zuma did not forgive.
Ramaphosa’s promise to eradicate corruption and patronage within the ANC faced strong resistance from a rival faction within the party. The ANC has dominated South African politics since the end of the apartheid era.
In his lawyers’ letter, Mr. Zuma argued that he did not need to appear before the corruption panel because his request for Judge Zondo to refuse was still under analysis. Mr. Zuma first raised this issue when he left a panel hearing on corruption in November, refusing to testify before Judge Zondo.
But the Constitutional Court, in a ruling last month, said that Zuma was still required to appear and testify.
In anticipation of an arrest warrant for Zuma, dozens of veterans of the former ANC armed wing, uMkhonto weSizwe, camped around the former president’s residence in Nkandla, in the rural province of KwaZulu-Natal, some 300 miles southeast Johannesburg. The veterans told the South African Broadcasting Corporation they would stay until the end of the week to prevent the police from taking Zuma into custody. They joined Zuma’s supporters, who sang and shouted their allegiance to him.
Zuma’s position threatened to polarize not only factions within the ANC, but also in the country, some party members said.
“If he is arrested, it is perfectly clear that the society will be divided into two groups,” said Mdumiseni Ntuli, party secretary in KwaZulu-Natal. Ntuli and other members of the provincial leadership met with Zuma over the weekend to try to convince him to comply with the law, Ntuli told South African Broadcasting Corporation.
“The implications for the ANC’s unity and cohesion will be very profound,” said Ntuli of the possible arrest.
The fact that the ANC cannot force Zuma to comply with the law is a sign of the party’s inability to hold its senior leadership accountable, said Professor Susan Booysen of the University of Witwatersrand.
“It really shows a lot of weaknesses in the ANC,” she said. “The ANC could not step on the ground and say, ‘You will appear.'”
Ms. Booysen, who is the author of a recent book, “Precarious power: conformity and discontent under the Ramaphosa ANC,” also said that it was clear that the governing party was no longer a singular movement, but “an alliance of many. different identities, political factions and financial interests held together by his compulsion to maintain power, earn money and the legacy of being seen as a liberation movement. ”