South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma survived a car accident overnight after a vehicle transporting him was hit by a drunk driver, police said on Friday.
The incident happened just hours after electoral officials barred Zuma from standing in the May 29 general election, further stoking tensions in the run-up to the polls.
The driver’s car “collided with former president Jacob Zuma’s official armoured state vehicle”, the South African Police Service (SAPS) said.
The 51-year-old man was arrested in KwaZulu Natal province “for drunken driving, as well as on a charge of reckless and negligent driving”, SAPS said.
Zuma and his bodyguards escaped uninjured, and the 81-year-old was taken to his place of residence.
Zuma, a former veteran of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), was forced out of office in 2018 under a cloud of corruption allegations but still wields political clout.
In December he announced he would be campaigning for the opposition Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party in an attempt to relaunch his career — a major blow to the ANC.
On Wednesday the ANC launched a new court application against MK, after losing an initial bid to have it disqualified.
The ANC says that MK’s name and logo are similar to those of the now disbanded apartheid-era military wing of the ANC once led by Nelson Mandela, and that this could deceive or confuse voters.
