Pretoria: Former South African president Jacob Zuma was admitted to the Estcourt Correctional Centre and released in less than two hours. The Correctional Services national commissioner said Zuma's release was part of a remission programme aiming to address prison overcrowding.
As pressure from the opposition mounted, authorities and correctional services defended their decision. "The law has taken its course with regards to the former president Zuma. The national commissioner has taken a decision and that decision was not interfered with, neither did we meddle with it," the Justice and Correctional Services minister said.
Minister Lamola said, the former leader immediately benefited from a remission of non-violent offenders approved by President Ramaphosa. Under the remissions process, almost 9,500 inmates will be released from prison and placed under correctional supervision, said Makhothi Thobakgale, correctional services commissioner.
The decision to return Zuma to prison followed a Supreme Court of Appeal judgment that upheld a Gauteng High Court ruling that releasing him from jail on medical parole in 2021 was unlawful and unconstitutional. However, the court left to Thobakgale the decision of whether Zuma should return to jail or have his time under medical parole considered as time served.
Zuma was jailed in 2021 for defying a Constitutional Court order to appear before a commission of inquiry investigating allegations of corruption during his tenure as president from 2009 to 2018. He was released on medical parole two months into his 15-month sentence.
Then correctional services commissioner Arthur Fraser, a known ally of the former president, authorized Zuma’s release on medical parole. The Jacob Zuma Foundation has argued that Zuma served his sentence as he was under correctional supervision while on medical parole.