Johannesburg: A South African court on Wednesday ruled that the country's former President Jacob Zuma should be returned to prison to complete his 15-month sentence for contempt of court, invalidating the medical parole he was granted in September by declaring it "unlawful".
Zuma, 79, started serving his term in July after handing himself over to the authorities, but was released on medical parole just two months later by then National Commissioner of Correctional Services Arthur Fraser in controversial circumstances.
Fraser, a known ally of Zuma, had allegedly overridden the Medical Parole Board, which is the official body tasked with taking decisions on applications for medical parole.
The High Court in Pretoria ordered that Zuma should be sent back to prison. In the judgment on Wednesday, Judge K E Matojane said the decision by Fraser, which was taken on September 5, is reviewed, declared unlawful, and set aside.
The medical parole decision is substituted with a decision rejecting (Zuma's) application for medical parole. It is hereby directed that (Zuma) be returned to the custody of the Department of Correctional Services to serve out the remainder of his sentence of imprisonment, the judgment read.
Significantly, the court also ruled that the period that Zuma has been out of jail on medical parole should not be counted for the fulfillment of Zuma's 15-month sentence.
I agree with the submission by Helen Suzman Foundation that without the order that (Zuma's) time on medical parole not counting toward the fulfilment of his sentence, (Zuma) will unduly benefit from a lesser punishment than that imposed by the Constitutional Court, Judge Matojane said.
Despite being on medical parole, Zuma has not remained at his rural Nkandla homestead but has been seen in public at several events, looking well.
He had repeatedly shown disregard for the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture and the country's apex court, the Constitutional Court, which declared him to be in contempt and imposed the 15-month sentence.
A number of witnesses at the Commission had implicated Zuma in several state capture cases. Among them, were billions of rands looted by the three Indian-origin Gupta brothers, Ajay, Atul and Rajesh, who are believed to be in self-exile in Dubai while South Africa awaits an extradition request for them to face trial in South Africa.
The Guptas carried out their activities because of their alleged closeness to Zuma, even announcing ministerial appointments before Zuma had officially done so himself, witnesses testified.
But Zuma is unlikely to be spending Christmas next week behind bars, as the JG Zuma Foundation confirmed that he has applied to appeal the judgement.
The Foundation tweeted that Zuma is appealing the judgment on the grounds that the verdict is clearly wrong and there are strong prospects that a higher court will come to a totally different conclusion.
After Zuma's imprisonment in July, a week-long orgy of violence and looting had occurred in mainly his home province of KwaZulu Natal and in the economic hub of Gauteng province.
Some Zuma supporters have threatened on social media to do so again, but informed sources said security services and police were ready this time for any such action.
Police were decried for their inaction for days as the looting and even some killing continued.
