South Africa’s Ex-President, Jacob Zuma Hospitalized

This is coming less than a week before Zuma, who was jailed for contempt of court last month, is due in court for a separate graft trial.

The Department of Correctional Services disclosed this in a statement on Friday.

It said in the statement that the Department of Correctional Services “can confirm that former president Jacob Zuma P today, August 6 2021, been admitted to an outside hospital for medical observation.”

No further reason was given for the hospitalization on Friday, apart from that, it was prompted by “a routine observation.”

Zuma is scheduled to attend the resumption of a long-running corruption trial on August 10.

Recall that the constitutional court ordered Zuma to be jailed for refusing to give evidence at an inquiry into corruption during his nine years in office from 2009.

The 79-year-old, who has been accused of receiving bribes over a $2 billion weapons deal in the late 1990s, initially resisted arrest but later turned himself in.

Following the arrest of Zuma, who wields support among the poor and among loyalists in the ruling African National Congress (ANC), protests broke out in the country.

The protests quickly turned into looting as crowds pillaged shopping malls and warehouses, hauling away goods as police stood by, seemingly powerless to act.

A South African court had last month adjourned the trial of Zuma after the former leader applied for a postponement to appear in person rather than virtually.