Once South Africa's former president, Jacob Zuma, was disqualified from the campaign for parliament on Monday, he launched a scathing attack on several of the country's most notable judges.
Mr. Zuma claimed to the BBC in his first interview after being banned that the Constitutional Court erred in declaring his 2021 conviction for contempt of court to be the reason he couldn't run.
"I was expecting our judges to say something like that, but they are obviously wrong. False, "the eighty-two-year-old retorted, adding that it would be appropriate to modify the constitution.
In anticipation of the federal election that takes place next week, Mr. Zuma has been campaigning under the flag of the freshly formed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party.
He joined the ruling African National Congress (ANC) after severing ties with his previous group.
The electoral commission argued that anyone who has served more than a year in prison is unable to run public office, and the judges of the Constitutional Court agreed.
Mr. Zuma was found guilty in 2021 for refusing to appear before a commission investigating claims of misconduct made against him when he was president.
Current President Cyril Ramaphosa lowered his sentence to three months after he was released from prison in what was widely seen as an attempt to placate the former president's outraged supporters. However, Ramaphosa's attorneys had argued that he was entitled to become a Member of Parliament.
According to BBC news, Mr. Zuma claimed, "The judges of the Constitutional Court have acted very funny to me - towards me in particular."
"They employ their own will, disregarding the will of the people in this country."
Before being removed from office as ANC leader because to accusations of pervasive corruption in his administration, he served as president from 2009 to 2018.
Tags:
Africa