Former president Jacob Zuma has undergone surgery in a hospital outside Estcourt prison, and more procedures are scheduled.
Zuma was transferred from jail to the hospital on Friday, August 6 following “routine observation” which led to his transfer for medical care.
On Sunday the prisons department spokesperson, Singabakho Nxumalo, said Zuma “underwent a surgical procedure on Saturday” with “other procedures scheduled for the coming days.”
Nxumalo said the correctional services department was unable to forecast when Zuma would be discharged from hospital and readmitted to Estcourt prison. He said the prisons department’s priority was for Zuma’s to receive the best care possible.
“We appeal to all people to refrain from speculating on the health of Mr Zuma and allow medical practitioners space to continue providing quality healthcare to him,” Nxumalo said.
In early August, a month into serving a 15-month sentence, the 79-year-old former president was transferred from an isolation unit in prison to hospital.
Zuma is challenging the Constitutional Court order which landed him behind bars.
Zuma wants the court of last instance to backtrack on its sanction against him, and rescind its order. The prison department’s announcement about surgery came two days after Zuma filed papers in the Constitutional Court to supplement his bid to undo its order.
In late June, the majority of judges in the apex court sentenced Zuma to jail time for defying its unanimous order that he heed summonses to testify at the state capture inquiry. The court further ordered Zuma to make written submissions to the commission and provide meaningful answers to questions posed, which he ignored.
In the early hours of July 8, Zuma began serving his sentence for contempt of court after he handed himself over to police for immediate transfer to prison.
In the event that Zuma did not hand himself over, the court ordered the minister of police Bheki Cele and police commissioner Khehla Sitole to take all reasonable and lawful steps to ensure his imprisonment by midnight on July 7.
On August 14 the Jacob Zuma Foundation issued a statement in response to reports on events behind-the-scenes leading up to Zuma's admission to Estcourt prison. .
The foundation’s spokesperson, Mzanele Manyi, condemned “fake news” and “malicious media reports”.
The common thread being that his close ally, Dudu Myeni “frantically convinced President Zuma [at] the 11th hour for him to hand himself over,” said Manyi.
He asserted the reports were “fabrication” aimed at portraying Zuma as a “delinquent” who required extraordinary persuasion to obey the law, “notwithstanding the unconstitutionality of the whole sentencing process.”
Zuma had elected to “conscientiously object” from participating in the apex court’s case and declined to provide reasons in mitigation of a possible sentence. Zuma has argued he was imprisoned without trial.
Manyi said it was legal feedback, delivered through Myeni that led Zuma to conclude he had exhausted all the legal avenues and “didn't want to offer resistance to his arrest which would cause bloodshed”.
Demonstrations, which began the weekend leading up to Zuma’s arrest, continued after his incarceration. These quickly morphed into widespread looting, torching of business and the death of more than 300 people. According to Cele, at least a third of the fatalities were suspected murders, while tens of others were killed in stampedes as thousands of people stormed businesses and stole stock.
President Cyril Ramaphosa called the unrest, which began in KwaZulu-Natal and spread to Gauteng, an attempted insurrection that failed. He said the “anarchy and mayhem” was co-ordinated, planned and instigated. In response, Ramaphosa deployed 25,000 soldiers to support police and, in light of intelligence service’s failure to adequately pre-empt the clashes, reshuffled his cabinet and close the ministry of state security.
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