Zuma fleeing the coop is sickening

Just when you thought there could be no more twists in the convoluted Jacob Zuma soap opera, he suddenly slips out of the country to Moscow for “medical treatment”, just days after appearing, hale and hearty, visiting Victoria Falls with his daughter.

Could it possibly be linked to the decision by the Constitutional Court, which dismissed a bid to overturn the Supreme Court of Appeal’s (SCA) November 2022 ruling that the decision of former correctional services commissioner Arthur Fraser to grant Zuma medical parole was unlawful and set aside?

ALSO READ: Zuma receiving treatment for undisclosed illness in Russia

This might have, on the face of it, meant that the man who has spent decades declaring himself innocent of every accusation ever levelled against him, as well as his eagerness to have his “day in court”, would have to return to prison in Estcourt, from where he was illegally released.

The thought of that is enough to make anyone ill, to be fair…

How is it, though, that a man released on parole – a legal instrument – is able to skip the country, even after it is clear the courts rule he should be back in prison?

ALSO READ: ‘Zuma must go to jail’ − Steenhuisen

After so much bending over backwards over the years to accommodate Zuma, no doubt the ANC will come up with some technical reason that the former president is “not a flight risk”… even though he has just flown the coop.

The latest shenanigans – for that is what they are, given the fact that this country has medical treatment and staff up with the best in the world – only underline the fact that our government is one of “no consequences” when it comes to its own cadres.

ALSO READ: Reports that ConCourt ordered Zuma to go back to jail are ‘malicious, misleading and hateful’

That being the case – and there are plenty of examples of the law dragging its feet – the message is clearly: okay, comrades, you can carry on looting.