Zuma could hear prison fate on Thursday

Zuma could hear prison fate on Thursday

An announcement on former president Jacob Zuma’s possible return to prison could be made before the end of Thursday.

Jacob Zuma media briefing Oct 2022
PHILL MAGAKOE / AFP

Acting Correctional Services Commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale indicated that a public announcement would be made on whether Zuma would have to return to prison to complete his 15-month sentence.

The Department of Correctional Services stated last week that it had received representations from relevant parties on the incarceration term for Zuma.  

Thobakgale said a decision would be made within 10 days, with the deadline expiring on Thursday.

This comes after the Constitutional Court dismissed  Zuma's application for leave to appeal a ruling on the granting of his medical parole.

The court found that the decision by former prisons boss Arthur Fraser to grant Zuma medical parole was unlawful and ordered that he return to prison.

In 2022, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the parole was unlawful and that Zuma had not finished serving his sentence.

Zuma was jailed in 2021 for defying a ConCourt order forcing him to appear before the state capture inquiry.

He was released from the Estcourt Correctional Centre on medical parole after serving only two months of the 15 months sentence.

His arrest led to ten days of riots in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, leading to the death of more than 350 people.

The Jacob Zuma Foundation remains adamant that the former president has served his time while he was on parole.

Zuma was in Russia when the apex court delivered the ruling last month but has since returned home.

The foundation’s spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi confirmed on Wednesday last week that the check-up and observations went well.

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