Jacob Zuma supporters to picket at rural home as deadline looms

Police block the entrance to the rural home of South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma, Friday, where supporters are expected to picket in a show of solidarity to Zuma.

The latter faces a deadline on Sunday to surrender to police for contempt of court.

In an unprecedented ruling Tuesday, South Africa’s Constitutional Court handed Zuma a 15-month jail term to the former leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party.

Zuma had repeatedly refused to comply with an order to appear before a commission probing him over graft allegations.

If the 79-year-old fails to turn himself in by Sunday, police will be given a further three days to arrest him and take him to jail to start his sentence.

On Friday, local media said that according to a warrant of committal, Zuma would be taken to Westville Prison, about 200 kilometres from his rural home of Nkandla in southeastern Kwa-Zulu Natal province.

A group of other supporters arrived in two mini-buses waving flags of the ANC, and wearing white T-shirts with the inscription 'wenzeni uZuma', Zulu for "What has Zuma done?"

A few vendors set up stalls at the gate to Zuma's homestead, selling food and ANC regalia, as goats roamed in and out of the compound.

A big blue tent and a small red one have been erected to shelter members of the veterans of ANC's armed struggle wing Umkhonto we Sizwe. The group has staunchly stood behind Zuma in recent years.