Jacob Zuma aid has open up about his present state, that he is in “high spirits”, despite his jail sentence.

In an unprecedented ruling, the Constitutional Court on Tuesday convicted Zuma for “egregious” and “aggravated” contempt of court after he refused to appear before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

If Zuma fails to turn himself in by Sunday, police will be ordered to arrest him and take him to prison.

But his close associates said Zuma’s morale was good and his famously jovial energy was undimmed.

“He is in high spirits, bouncing like a tennis ball,” his spokesman Mzwanele Manyi told AFP. “If it was me, I would have lost appetite, he has not lost appetite.”

His lawyers are still formulating a response to the ruling.

Zuma, 79, is accused of enabling the plunder of state coffers during his nine years in office, which ended in February 2018 when he was forced out by the ANC.

Before he left office, he responded to mounting pressure by setting the State Capture Inquiry, headed by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

He was ordered on Tuesday to be jailed after years of failure to testify to the panel.

Zondo on Wednesday welcomed the verdict, telling a news conference that this is “a very important judgement for our country”.

But, he added, “one wishes that it had never become necessary to reach this point.”

Zuma is separately facing 16 charges of fraud, graft and racketeering relating to a 1999 purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and military gear from five European arms firms for R30 billion.