Jacob Zuma Won’t Return To Prison After Sentence Remission

Former President Jacob Zuma will not be returning to prison.

Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola outlined this decision to members of the media in Hatfield, Pretoria on Friday morning.

In July, the Constitutional Court upheld the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA)’s ruling that former Correctional Services Commissioner Arthur Fraser’s 2021 decision to grant Zuma medical parole just two months into his 15-month contempt sentence was unlawful.

That ruling left it to Makgothi Thobakgale, who was appointed acting commissioner after Fraser’s term of office subsequently came to an end, to decide if the time Zuma had spent on medical parole should count as time served regardless.

Ultimately, though, he’s now been granted a remission of his sentence.

The Department of Correctional Services said that he was one of thousands of inmates who’d been granted such a remission in a bid to alleviate overcrowding in prisons.