Picture File: Former president Jacob Zuma speaks at a press conference in Sandton, Johannesburg, 22 October 2022. Picture: Michel Bega
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has sent a letter to acting national commissioner of correctional services Makgothi Thobakgale, demanding that former president Jacob Zuma be returned to the Estcourt Correctional Centre to serve the remainder of his sentence by Friday, 5pm.
The party’s stance comes from Monday’s ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal that Zuma’s medical parole was illegal, and that he needs to finish serving his 15-month prison sentence for failing to appear before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture when called to do so.
The application to review Zuma’s medical parole was lodged by the Democratic Alliance (DA), the Helen Suzman Foundation and AfriForum.
Zuma spent less than two months behind bars before former spy boss and then-outgoing correctional services head Arthur Fraser released him on medical parole.
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The DA’s legal letter points out that “Mr Zuma is obliged by order to immediately return to the Estcourt Correctional Centre and if he fails to do so within reasonable time, the Commissioner of Correctional Services is obliged to ensure that he is returned – by arrest if necessary”.
“This case, National Commissioner of Correctional Services v Democratic Alliance, was brought by the DA because we are determined to ensure that the democratic principles of equality before the law and accountability are upheld,” reads a statement from the DA.
However, the former statesman’s daughter, Dudu Zuma-Sambudla, hinted on social media that her father would not be returning to prison.
Taking to Twitter on Tuesday evening, Zuma-Sambudla posted details of an event her father would be attending at a primary school two days after the ‘arrest’ date.
“We don’t know what is happening on Friday…But on Sunday, President Zuma is in Umlazi. Si-Busy (we are busy),” she tweeted.
It will be for prison authorities to decide whether the time the former president spent on unlawful medical parole should count as part of his 15-month contempt sentence.
“In other words, Mr Zuma, in law, has not finished serving his sentence. He must return to the Estcourt Correctional Centre to do so.
“Whether time spent by Mr Zuma on unlawfully granted medical parole should be taken into account in determining the remaining period of his incarceration, is not a matter for this court to decide,” the SCA said in its ruling.
Read the full Judgment
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