JOHANNESBURG: Jacob Zuma on Thursday began a 15-month sentence for contempt of court, becoming South Africa's first post-apartheid president to be jailed after a drama that campaigners said ended in a victory for rule of law.

Zuma, 79, reported to prison early Thursday after mounting a last-ditch legal bid and stoking defiance among radical supporters who had rallied at his rural home. His battle transfixed the country, placing a spotlight on the issue of impunity and tensions within the ruling African National Congress (ANC). South Africa's top court on June 29 slapped Zuma with a 15-month term for refusing to appear before a probe into the corruption that entangled his nine years in power.

As police warned he faced arrest from midnight Wednesday, Zuma handed himself in to a jail in the rural town of Estcourt in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal.