Zuma back in court in fresh bid to avoid jail

Jacob Zuma, once dubbed South Africa’s “Teflon president” for his ability to evade the verdict of justice, yesterday mounted the first round of a last-ditch bid to avoid jail for snubbing anti-graft investigators.Zuma has mounted a two-pronged legal attempt to avoid jail after the Constitutional Court, the country’s top judicial authority, slapped him with a 15-month term for contempt.The Pietermaritzburg High Court yesterday heard Zuma’s application to halt execution of an imminent arrest order as police gave him several days’ breathing space.They said they would not make any move to detain him until he had exhausted his legal options.In his petition to the court, Zuma’s lawyer Dali Mpofu argued that the former president would turn 80 on his next birthday, his “health condition is uncontestably precarious,” and he was not a flight risk as he was under the care and security of the state.That argument gained short shrift from the anti-graft panel that Zuma snubbed.“We are dealing with a repetitive and recalcitrant law breaker in the form of Mr Zuma,” attorney Tembeka Ngcukaitobi told judge Bhekisisa Mnguni.“He has now come to ask you to assist him to break the law further. You should reject that.”The court then went into recess, with the verdict expected on Friday.The jail term was handed down last week after Zuma refused to obey court orders to appear before the commission, which is headed by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo.The panel is probing so-called state capture — the siphoning off of national assets, which occurred on a massive scale under Zuma’s nine-year tenure.Zuma was told to turn himself in by midnight last Sunday, failing which police would be instructed to arrest him within the following three days.