JOVIAL SUPPORTERS

SCORES of Zuma supporters flock into Moses Mabhida People’s Park yesterday to attend the Jacob Zuma welcome prayer.

AN UNREPENTANT former president Jacob Zuma is still on the warpath, as he yesterday lambasted the Constitutional Court for “unlawfully” sending him to jail based on an allegedly defective application by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who refused to recuse himself when he asked him to do so.

Zuma yesterday addressed his supporters via a live Facebook feed from his home in Nkandla.

Despite growing expectations, the former ANC leader did not show up in person at a rally held at the People's Park near Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.

Addressing his supporters, Zuma said the Constitutional Court’s “majority judgment is bad in law”, and that he was “unconstitutionally” jailed.

Giving reasons why he had not attended the rally, he cited “known reasons”, which included ill-health, which saw him being granted medical parole on September 5, just two months into his 15-month jail sentence for contempt of court.

Zuma told those gathered that he was “a prisoner under very strict parole conditions” in a democratic state where the black majority controlled the levers of power.

He thanked his supporters for their undying loyalty, even after he was sent to jail.

Commenting on the country's judiciary, Zuma said a lot was wrong with it, and something needed to be fixed.

“It is this state that has imprisoned me without trial; something has gone terribly wrong in our country. The main aspects of the unconstitutional debacle that ended with my current imprisonment has been repeating (for years). I remain a prisoner under very strict parole conditions,” he said.

Zuma further said it was wrong for former public protector advocate Thuli Madonsela to take away his powers to appoint the chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry into state capture.

The position eventually went to Justice Zondo, whom Zuma singled out as the person behind his current woes and the reason why he was jailed. Turning to the last minutes of his freedom before he was jailed, Zuma said his decision to surrender and start serving his jail sentence in July was made to prevent “a dangerous war” that could have resulted in innocent people losing their lives, including his family members.

“The last days before the arrest, armed security forces descended on the King Cetshwayo district municipality. Their declared intention was to execute my arrest, regardless of any potential loss of life. My comrades and supporters were demonstrating against what appeared to be a heavy-handed and unwarranted show of state violence to arrest me,” Zuma said.