Story from Kenneth AFOR, Lagos

Jacob Zuma, a former South African president who is currently serving a jail term has been hospitalised.

Zuma who was sentenced on July 8, for contempt of court is to appear before a week’s time for a separate anti-corruption trial which has been lingering for years which many say is a delayed tactic to elongate the process of trials.

According to the Department of Correctional Services, the former South African president was taken to the hospital Friday morning for a ‘medical observation’.

The department “can confirm that former president Jacob Zuma has today, 6 August 2021, been admitted to an outside hospital for medical observation,” it said in a statement.

The 79-year-old is scheduled to appear on August 10 for a hearing which includes a plea to drop 16 charges of fraud, graft and racketeering against him related to the 1999 purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and equipment from five European arms firms when he was deputy president.

He is also accused of taking bribes from one of the firms, French defence giant Thales, which has been charged with corruption and money laundering.