Former President Jacob Zuma enters the High Court where he faces charges that include fraud, corruption and racketeering, in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa on Tuesday. Photo: VCG

Former president Jacob Zuma turned himself into prison early Thursday to begin serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of the country's highest court, officials said.

Prison authorities confirmed that Zuma "has been admitted to start serving a 15-month sentence at Estcourt Correctional Center" in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal. He turned himself in after days of refusing to do so bringing to an end to an impasse that had gripped the country, which is also battling a brutal third wave of COVID-19.

The sentence handed to Zuma by the Constitutional Court last week for snubbing anti-graft investigators also set a benchmark for the continent, by jailing a former head of state for refusing to respond to a corruption probe.

Police had earlier on Wednesday warned that they were prepared to arrest Zuma by a midnight deadline to enforce the ruling, unless the top court instructed otherwise.

But in the end the former leader decided to make his own way to prison.

Just minutes before the deadline expired, his foundation tweeted that Zuma had "decided to comply with the incarceration order" and hand himself to a correctional facility.

A convoy of cars believed to be carrying Zuma, drove out of his homestead at high speed about 40 minutes before the cut-off time.

Zuma's daughter Dudu Zuma-Sambudla tweeted that he was "still in high spirits" and that "he said that he hopes they still have his same overalls from Robben Island... We salute dad!"