A former South African president has refused to surrender to police after judges gave him a 15-month jail term for a corruption case.

Jacob Zuma, slammed judges and compared them to apartheid rulers after police were ordered to arrest him.

The 79-year-old former African National Congress (ANC) leader, spoke from his home in Nklandla, in the Kwazulu-Natal province.

“The fact that I was lambasted with a punitive jail sentence without trial should engender shock in all those who believe in freedom and the rule of law,” Mr Zuma said.

“South Africa is fast sliding back to apartheid rule.”

On Tuesday the constitutional court sentenced Mr Zuma for contempt of court after failing to appear at a hearing in February.

South Africa’s supreme court handed down the sentence for him to be imprisoned. Mr Zuma is being investigated on allegations of corruption during his presidency between 2009 and 2018.

He has since launched several court actions to reverse the ruling and has said he will challenge the prison sentence.

Hundreds of his supporters have formed a human shield outside his home to try and stop his arrest. His supporters have called for the sentence to be completely dropped.

Mr Zuma remains defiant and told his supported he is not afraid of being jailed, as he was sent to prison before by the apartheid regime.

 “I am not afraid of going to jail. I went to prison fighting for freedom and rights and it looks like I will have to start from scratch and fight for freedom again,” said Mr Zuma in the Zulu language.

“There is nobody who can come and take these rights away from me just because they think they understand the law. Those I fought for this freedom with would turn in their graves,” he added.

In 1963, Mr Zuma was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison on Robben Island for conspiring to overthrow South Africa’s apartheid government.

Mr Zuma has told the court he wishes for his sentence to be cancelled because it could expose him to Covid-19, which “would put him at the highest risk of death”.

At a news conference on Sunday, he revealed he had not been vaccinated against Covid-19.

The court has agreed to hear his appeal on 12 July, and have suspended his sentence until then.