Former president Jacob Zuma is back in SA after a nearly month-long trip to Russia where received medical treatment.
He returned on the eve of the department of correctional services deadline requiring him to give reasons why he shouldn’t return to prison to serve the remainder of his 15-month sentence for contempt of court.
National commissioner for correctional services Makgothi Thobakgale will make a final decision on the matter after hearing submissions from Zuma and other interested parties, including the DA and the Helen Suzman Foundation.
The Jacob Zuma Foundation insists that the former president, who returned on Wednesday, has served his sentence and has made his submissions to Thobakgale.
“The foundation is suspicious that this sudden extension is probably occasioned by political interference of sorts, or the opposing parties need more time to counter the unassailable submission of ... Zuma," said foundation spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi.
Zuma, who was imprisoned in July 2021 for defying a Constitutional Court order to appear at the commission of inquiry into allegations of state capture, was released on medical parole in September 2021 by Arthur Fraser, head of the department of correctional services at the time.
He only served two months of his prison term before being released.
In July the Constitutional Court upheld an earlier ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal that Zuma’s medical parole was unlawful, placing his fate in the hands of Thobakgale.
The former president’s return to the country also comes as the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg prepares to hear a private prosecution matter on Friday.
Zuma had charged state prosecutor Billy Downer and News24 journalist Karyn Maughan with contravening the NPA Act, relating to allegations that Downer “leaked” Zuma’s medical information contained in a report to the court.
The high court dismissed the matter in June and Downer and Maughan filed an enforcement appeal to prevent any action resulting from Zuma's private prosecution while he appeals the matter.
Zuma alleged that they had contravened the NPA Act in that Downer had leaked his confidential medical records to Maughan ahead of his application for a postponement of his arms deal-related trial on medical grounds.
“In terms of the law, it is compulsory for the private prosecutor to appear whenever the accused persons appear in terms of the summons or as ordered by a judge," Manyi said. “As matters stand and barring any not to be ruled out shenanigans, the private prosecution is otherwise set down to be conducted in the presence of the two accused persons this Friday,"
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