He was admitted to Estcourt Correctional Centre in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Police had warned that they were prepared to arrest him if he did not hand himself in by midnight.<\/p>\n
Zuma, 79, was handed the jail term last week after he failed to attend a corruption inquiry.<\/p>\n
The sentencing sparked an unprecedented legal drama in South Africa, with a deadline imposed of midnight on Wednesday (22:00 GMT) for his arrest.<\/p>\n
The deadline was imposed after Zuma refused to hand himself in on Sunday.<\/p>\n
In a short statement, the Jacob Zuma Foundation said the former president had “decided to comply with the incarceration order” and hand himself in to prison authorities.<\/p>\n
His daughter, Dudu Zuma-Sambudla, later wrote on Twitter that her father was “en route [to the jail] and he is still in high spirits”.<\/p>\n
South Africa has never seen a former president jailed before.<\/p>\n
Zuma was sentenced on 29 June for defying an instruction to give evidence at an inquiry into corruption during his nine years in power.<\/p>\n
Businessmen have been accused of conspiring with politicians to influence the decision-making process while he was in office. But Zuma has repeatedly said that he is the victim of a political conspiracy.<\/p>\n
Though he was forced out of office by his own party in 2018, the African National Congress (ANC), he retains a loyal body of supporters, especially in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, crowds formed what they called a human shield outside Zuma’s palatial home in an effort to prevent his arrest. Similar crowds gathered before he handed himself in on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
{{An ignominious end}}<\/p>\n
{ {{Analysis by Farouk Chothia, BBC News}} }<\/p>\n
Zuma was once an illustrious political figure, who was jailed for fighting the racist system of apartheid in South Africa.<\/p>\n
Now, he has been arrested for being contemptuous of South Africa’s most senior judges – the guardians of the democracy he fought for – as he tried to evade accountability over the deluge of corruption allegations he faced during his presidency.<\/p>\n
It is an ignominious end to Zuma’s political career, but a proud moment for South Africa’s democracy. It shows that no one is above the law – not even a former president.<\/p>\n
His supporters threatened to block any attempt by police to arrest him, but in the end they did not have to. The 79-year-old surrendered, knowing he could not defeat the might of the state.<\/p>\n
The BBC’s Nomsa Maseko, who was outside Zuma’s home on Wednesday, noted that there was a large police presence outside the property that included armed officers and a paramilitary unit.<\/p>\n
A delegation of senior officers are believed to have spent several hours inside the residence negotiating with the former president over his arrest.<\/p>\n
A convoy of cars, one of which was carrying Zuma, was then seen leaving the house at high-speed shortly before the midnight deadline for his detention.<\/p>\n
Zuma previously declared that he was prepared to go to prison.<\/p>\n
However, he said that “sending me to jail during the height of a pandemic, at my age, is the same as sentencing me to death”.<\/p>\n
He has also repeatedly said that he is the victim of a political conspiracy. He has testified only once at the corruption inquiry into what has become known as “state capture” – meaning the siphoning off of state assets.<\/p>\n
In a separate legal matter, Zuma pleaded not guilty last month in a corruption trial involving a $5bn (\u00a33bn) arms deal from the 1990s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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