Zuma foundation set to host homecoming prayer for paroled ex-president

The Jacob G Zuma Foundation has announced that it will be hosting a national welcome-home prayer for the former president on 14 October.

This comes as uncertainty swirls around Zuma’s whereabouts. The foundation has previously refused to confirm whether the former president is at his home in Nkandla or is still in hospital.

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“The foundation is inundated with a barrage of calls following a media report which purports that H.E president Zuma is back at Nkandla. The foundation wishes to reiterate its earlier position that the discharge from hospital of H.E Prez [sic] Zuma will not be made public,” reads a tweet from the foundation’s spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi.

The foundation added that religious organisations, non-governmental organisations and political parties are invited to the event. 

Zuma was admitted to hospital in August, shortly after he began his 15-month jail term for contempt of court. Zuma was then controversially granted medical parole by now-former prisons boss Arthur Fraser. Fraser admitted that he overruled the Medical Oarole Advisory Board when he made his decision.

More questions were raised about this decision after it was revealed at Zuma’s arms deal corruption trial that state-appointed doctors said he was fit enough to stand trial.

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The planned welcome-home prayer also comes after the foundation dismissed a report that Zuma would address his supporters at Nkandla on Wednesday.

“Dear media, the foundation is humbly requesting that you please afford [former president] Zuma space without unnecessary invasion. Any public appearance that [former president] Zuma wishes to make, will be announced as such. Please consider everything fake news until the foundation announces otherwise,” the foundation tweeted.

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Additional reporting by Bernadette Wicks and Siyanda Ndlovu