Former South African President Jacob Zuma on Monday ruled out the possibility of surrendering to the authorities, with a few hours left before the deadline set by the court for him to appear.

At a press conference in his stronghold, Kwazulu-Natal, the former South African head of state said, "there is no need for me to go to prison today."

Zuma was sentenced last Tuesday to 15 months in prison by the Constitutional Court for repeatedly refusing to testify in state corruption investigations in which he was allegedly involved.

But the court on Saturday accepted a request by the politician to review his trial, an attempt by him to avoid being put behind bars at least until a new hearing, scheduled for July 12.

"They cannot accept the papers and expect me to report to prison," said Zuma, who by tonight was supposed to turn himself in at a police station.

Otherwise, the police are instructed to arrest him within three days and take him to a prison where he will begin serving his sentence.

Technically, the new hearing does not suspend the Constitutional Court's decision, which constitutional law experts say is "historic" and cannot be appealed.

The court said it was "historic" and could not be appealed, according to constitutional experts. "Sending someone to prison without a trial is a travesty of justice," Zuma said at the press conference, adding, "Sending me to prison at the height of a pandemic, at my age, is equivalent to a death sentence."

The 79-year-old former president had earlier denounced a "violation of his rights" by the judges, considering they sentenced him to death, in front of a crowd gathered around his home in Nkandla.

"When I saw the police here, I wondered how they would get to me, how they would get past all these people," the former president told his supporters, who chanted his name as he appeared on stage.

If the police "come here to arrest Ubaba (the father, in Zulu), they will have to start with us," Lindokuhle Maphalala, one of his supporters, told the French news agency AFP.

The ANC, the party of which Zuma was leader, sent a delegation to the eastern province of Kwazulu-Natal to appeal for calm and the police presence was stepped up.

The former president is accused of looting public money during his nine years in power. He was forced to resign and was replaced by the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa.

Jacob Zuma is also on trial for a bribery case that dates back more than 20 years. He is accused of receiving more than four million rand from France's Thales, which was one of the companies awarded a lucrative arms contract worth about 2.8 billion euros.