SOUTH AFRICAN COURT ORDERS ARREST OF EX-PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA FOR CONTEMPT

South Africa’s highest court on Tuesday ordered the imprisonment of Jacob Zuma, the country’s former president, for 15 months on contempt charges, after he defied an order to appear before a corruption inquiry examining the breathtaking financial scandals that tainted his tenure as the country’s leader from 2009 to 2018, John Eligon and Lynsey Chutel reported for the New York Times.

The move to detain Mr. Zuma, a comrade of Nelson Mandela and one of the dominant figures in the governing African National Congress party since apartheid ended in 1994, was a notable development in the legacy of corruption that shadowed his years in power.

Many across the country hailed the ruling as a victory for this young democracy — a message that no one, not even a former head of state, is above the law. It could even have implications across the continent, where courts often take a back seat to powerful heads of state, said William Gumede, who leads the Democracy Works Foundation, a nonprofit focused on developing democracy in Africa.

“It’s going to inspire people across the continent — civil society, media, opposition parties — to actually take on former presidents and sitting presidents,” he said.

Supporters of Mr. Zuma, who maintains a fervent cadre of followers, blasted the decision as political and urged resistance. Speaking to the South African Broadcasting Corp. (SABC), a spokesman for Mr. Zuma’s foundation did not say what the former president would do next.

But he said that the court did not provide Mr. Zuma with equal treatment under the law.

“A dark cloud has covered South Africa today,” said the spokesman, Mzwanele Manyi. Mr. Zuma, who was not in court on Tuesday, was ordered to report to a police station within five days to begin serving his detention. If he does not report by that time, the court ordered, the police must detain him.

Speaking for nearly an hour as she laid out the majority decision of the Constitutional Court, Justice Sisi Khampepe offered unrelenting criticism of Mr. Zuma, saying that his attacks against the court were unprecedented.

“Never before has the judicial process been so threatened,” Justice Khampepe said, reading from the 66-page majority decision.

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