The Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa (SCA) is expected to deliver judgment today, (Monday 21 November 2022), on whether former president Jacob Zuma’s medical parole was granted properly.
Zuma and the Correctional Services Department approached the SCA in August, earlier this year, to overturn a high court judgment that declared his release on medical parole was unlawful.
The former president was released from prison on medical parole in September 2021.
He had been serving a 15-month prison sentence for contempt of court related to his refusal to return to the Zondo Commission to respond to allegations of corruption.
Zuma refused to return after an initial appearance because he said Justice Raymond Zondo, the chair of the state capture commission, was biased against him.
The stance landed Zuma in prison, but he was soon moved from the Estcourt Correctional Facility, in KwaZulu-Natal, to a hospital until his release on medical parole authorised by then Correctional Services Commissioner Arthur Fraser.
The 80-year-old former president spent less than two months in prison – with most of that time spent in a hospital.
Fraser later admitted in a television interview that he had overridden the Medical Parole Advisory Board’s decision not to release the former president from prison.
The move prompted a high court application to review Zuma’s medical parole, which was lodged by the Democratic Alliance, the Helen Suzman Foundation and AfriForum.
The high court found that Zuma’s release was unlawful, but the former president took the matter to the SCA, which is expected to release its judgment today.
