'The clock must untick itself' — 5 times Edward Zuma left SA in stitches

Former president Jacob Zuma's son, Edward, has been unintentionally leaving SA in stitches with his promises to “protect” his father from being arrested. 

Over the past few days, as the country waited with bated breath for Zuma to be jailed, Edward vowed to “defend” his father and was adamant that Zuma would not go to jail while he was still alive.  

However, on Wednesday evening, Zuma handed himself over to police in keeping with the Constitutional Court order against him.

Zuma was last week found guilty of contempt of court, after his failure to appear at the state capture inquiry. 

Zuma is now serving his 15-month sentence at the Estcourt Correctional Centre, where he will become eligible for parole after he serves a quarter of the sentence. 

Here are five times Edward's statements had SA chuckling.

'They will have to kill me first' 

Speaking to media outside Zuma’s homestead in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, last week, Edward said law enforcement agencies would have to kill him before they arrested his father. 

“My position has been known and I still maintain that whatever decisions are taken by law enforcement agents, they will have to kill me before such a thing is implemented,” he said.

“I will lay down my life for [former] President Zuma, they are not going to take him to prison when I'm still alive, they will have to kill me first. I insist on that.”

'We don't care about police'

Edward said Zuma's supporters did not care about police and would even stop Zuma from leaving Nkandla if he decided to hand himself in.

“Nkandla is on a total shutdown. Zuma is not going anywhere, even if he elects to do so we will stop him,” he added.

'Give his cell to another prisoner'

On Wednesday afternoon, he reiterated to journalists that Zuma was not going anywhere and that his jail cell should be given to someone else.

“That particular cell that is reserved for him for tonight, they might as well give it to another prisoner because, as the Zuma clan, we are not going to allow that. They will have to shed blood for that because we are going to be defending him with our lives,” said Edward. 

When asked how Zuma was feeling, Edward responded: “He is on top of the world.”

'The clock must untick itself'

Just a few hours before Zuma handed himself over, Edward said the clock ticking towards midnight must “untick itself”. 

“The clock is ticking, sir. He has to hand himself over to the law enforcement by 12pm,” one journalist can be heard telling Edward. 

Edward responded: “I would suggest that the clock unclicks itself ... untick itself!”

'I’ll simply put a lock on the gate'

Earlier this year, Edward told Newzroom Afrika that he was going to get a locksmith to prevent the authorities from arresting his father.

“We have a simple defence,” said Edward, when asked how he will protect his father from being arrested.

“We have locksmiths, I’ll simply put a lock on the gate and nobody will get access. If they break that, then they are breaking the law and I’ll have to defend myself and defend the property of our family,” he said.