The stolen photographs of former president Jacob Zuma signing himself into prison at the Estcourt correctional services facility, that have been circulating unlawfully on social media, seem to have aroused a dormant sense of compassion for the former struggle hero.

These feelings of sympathy are not entirely unwarranted. Zuma is, in many respects, a tragic figure who speaks eloquently to SA’s tragic past, but lest we forget he has been imprisoned not for any of the hundreds of charges of fraud, racketeering, money laundering and state looting he faces, but for contempt of court for refusing to appear before the Zondo commission, as ordered by the Constitutional Court..