The South African Supreme Court of Appeal on Monday ruled that the former President Jacob Zuma’s release on early medical parole was unlawful and that he should return to prison to finish his sentence for contempt of court, reported The Reuters.
The former South African president was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment after he failed to over the court’s order to testify at a government inquiry into widespread corruption during his presidential tenure that ended in 2018 when incumbent Cyril Ramaphosa replaced him.
Zuma’s arrest last year led to protests that spiralled into widespread unrest and looting, mainly in the KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng provinces.
The former president was released from jail on a medical parole for an undisclosed illness in September 2021 after only serving a few months of the sentence.
In December, the South African high court ordered him to return to jail. But he appealed that ruling. The court delivered its judgement on Monday after the department of correctional services said in October that his prison sentence has finished. A lengthy legal battle against the ruling means Zuma avoided a return to prison until now.
“In other words, Mr Zuma, in law, has not finished serving his sentence,” the Supreme Court of Appeal judgement read.
The court ordered him to return to the Escourt Correctional centre. It took issue with the department’s claim that Zuma’s sentence had ended when the appeal was still being heard. It also found that former national commissioner of correctional services’ order to grant Zuma medical parole against the advice of the Medical Parole Advisory Board was unlawful.
“On any conceivable basis, the commissioner’s decision was unlawful and unconstitutional,” the judgement said adding that the high court was correct to set it aside.
A spokesperson for the South African department of correctional services said the court’s judgement was being studied and it would respond on the ruling soon.
