“Things like detention without trial should never again see the light of day in South Africa. The struggle for a free South Africa was a struggle for justice that everyone was treated equally before the law,” said Zuma, at a Sunday press conference at his homestead in Nkandla.

Zuma faces a fifteen-month sentence for contempt ordered by the Constitutional Court for refusing to face questions at an anti-corruption commission looking into allegations of corruption during his tenure as president.

He was due to hand himself in by the end of Sunday, but the court has agreed to hear a rescission application on July 12.

“The fact that I was lambasted with a punitive jail sentence without trial is something that should induce a sense of shock to all those who cherish freedom and the rule of law,” the 79-year-old former leader said, claiming jail time would be a death sentence.