Mzwandile Masina and Carl Niehaus vow to ‘go to jail’ for Zuma

Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina and Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) official Carl Niehaus are not taking Jacob Zuma's arrest warrant lying down.

The pair have vowed to “go to jail” for Zuma should he be locked up.

On Tuesday, Judge Dhaya Pillay issued a warrant of arrest for the former president, after his legal team applied for him to be absent from his corruption trial in the Pietermaritzburg high court on “medical” grounds.

Zuma's lawyer, Daniel Mantsha, submitted a sick note from a military hospital where he said Zuma was treated, but Pillay refused to accept the document, saying it contained inconsistencies.

The warrant was stayed until May 6, when Zuma's criminal matter is expected back in court.

“I’m ready to go to jail for Zuma, since he is sick and currently receiving medical attention in Cuba, and there is no-one to blame. History has no blank pages and, indeed, does have [the] capacity to repeat itself,” said Masina.

Niehaus said: “Thank you comrade Masina. I, and many more true comrades, are ready together with you!”

Zuma's eldest son, Edward Zuma, said the warrant was issued out of hatred.

Edward was quoted saying: “I have always said, and will still say, that 'project destroy Jacob Zuma' has been in existence for years, way before 1994, and it still continues to this day. The people driving or at the helm of it, some are in the country and the rest are all over the world, especially the western powers.”