‘He will now become a martyr’: Is this part of Zuma’s grand plan?

Jail will turn former president Jacob Zuma into an overnight martyr and an instant post1994 revolutionary – and that’s what he always wanted to achieve as part of his fightback strategy.

According to political analyst Xolani Dube from the Xubera Institute for Research and Development, being sent to jail was what Zuma wanted as it was hidden ammunition in his political arsenal.

“What they have done unaware is to embolden him or create a statue of Jacob Zuma as a post1994 political martyr,” he said.

“They have played right into his hands or right into his strategy because he currently is more relevant than before,” Dube said.

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The analyst said when Zuma said he was prepared to go to jail and he would never surrender, nobody listened.

“He is a very cunning, a very calculating politician. Here, JZ is going to emerge as someone who is a permanent revolutionary person,” Dube said.

Top political analyst and author of books on the leadership of Zuma and President Cyril Ramaphosa, Dr Ralph Mathekga said Zuma had been preparing for his jail time.

“There certainly will be an attempt to paint him as a victim. Organising has been underway, I believe, hence he even has a new spokesperson, Mzwanele Manyi. High-profile leaders would be very careful to follow him, especially those not yet implicated in allegations of impropriety.

“As for those who might face the criminal justice system, chances are they will side with him because they know they might meet a similar fate from the courts.”

The Constitutional Court yesterday sentenced Zuma to 15 months’ imprisonment and he was ordered to pay the legal cost of the secretary to the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, who applied to the apex court to sentence him for contempt of court.

He has five days to surrender to the police in Nkandla or Joburg. There is no doubt Zuma will mobilise support around his imprisonment.

It needed no guessing his supporters would crowd around his rural homestead to show solidarity and some might want to prevent him from being arrested.

It is expected that a huge crowd will accompany him to the Nkandla police station. His daughter, Dudu, reportedly confirmed he will surrender himself at Nkandla.

ericn@citizen.co.za