Zuma’s return to prison: Deadline comes and goes

SA was left in suspense late yesterday waiting for acting national commissioner of correctional services Makgothi Thobakgale’s decision on whether former president Jacob Zuma must return to prison.

The former president was released on medical parole by the former commissioner, Arthur Fraser, in September 2021.

Zuma was sentenced to 15 months behind bars in July of that year after he defied a Constitutional Court order to appear at the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture, but served just two months of the sentence.

He was later released on medical parole – an action found unlawful by both the high court and Supreme Court of Appeal.

Thobakgale asked for submissions and said a decision would be made within 10 days, with the deadline expiring yesterday.

The department of correctional services said it had received representations from relevant parties on the imprisonment term for Zuma.

“Thobakgale will make his decision on, or before, 10 August,” it stated.

The ConCourt last month dismissed the department’s appeal which related to Zuma’s release on parole and left the outcome up to Thobakgale.

Zuma’s initial arrest sparked a wave of civil unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng from 9 to 18 July 2021. The riots resulted in 354 deaths.

Protests against Zuma’s incarceration triggered more rioting and looting, with R50 billion in damages and 5 500 people arrested by August last year.

Setting yesterday’s mood was a tweet from an X (formerly known as Twitter) account bearing Zuma’s son’s name, Duduzane: “Hell will break loose, my father is not going to jail.”

It is understood Duduzane has denied having an X account.

It was reportedly quiet outside Zuma’s home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, in comparison to the first time he was placed under arrest. Zuma’s financial woes have grown exponentially worse.

An insolvency inquiry into Zuma’s favourite diamond dealer, Louis Liebenberg, who has bankrolled Zuma’s legal fees to the tune of about R3.2 million, has reportedly found Zuma must pay back the money.

The money was diverted from Liebenberg’s now insolvent diamond company Tariomix, reported News24, and commissioner Eberhard Bertelsmann implied the money Liebenberg gave to Zuma came from a Ponzi scheme.

On 13 April 2021, the Supreme Court of Appeal found Zuma had unlawfully used state funds to bankroll his defence against corruption charges.

He owed the state R25 million, the court ruled, and he faces losing his pension.