AfriForum urges Zuma to abide by court order to return to jail

Lobby group AfriForum says former President Jacob Zuma must abide by the order of the High Court in Pretoria that he should return to jail.

The court has ruled that former Correctional Services national commissioner Arthur Fraser’s decision to place Zuma on medical parole was unlawful.

Seventy-nine-year-old Zuma was serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court after he ignored instructions to participate in the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

The High Court has further ruled that the period that Zuma was out of jail on medical parole will not be deducted from his 15-month prison sentence.

Afriforum, which was an applicant in the case, has welcomed the ruling.

Head of Policy and Action, Ernst Roets says, ‘The public has been concerned for quite some time, for there are obvious double standards in the SA legal system and that senior politicians or people with political connections are not treated the same way as the rest of the public. This is why Afriforum got involved in this matter as an applicant and also why we regard this as a major breakthrough for justice in this country.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Correctional Services said it was studying the judgment and in due course will make further pronouncements.

Arthur Fraser’s decision to parole Zuma unlawful | Samkele Maseko updates:

Reactions 

Former Spokesperson of uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association, Carl Niehaus, who is suspended from the ANC, believes Zuma should not have been arrested in the first place.

Niehaus says the decision for Zuma to go back to jail is “an outrageous judgment, a judgment that just reflects once again that our legal system and our courts are captured.”

Niehaus reacts to the court ruling: 

Legal woes, unrest 

The legal processes against Zuma for alleged corruption during his nine-year reign are widely viewed as a test of post-apartheid South Africa’s ability to enforce rule of law, particularly against powerful, well-connected people.

Zuma handed himself in on July 7 to begin his prison sentence, triggering the worst violence South Africa had seen in years, as angry Zuma supporters took to the streets.

The protests widened into looting and an outpouring of general anger over the hardship and inequality that persist 27 years after the end of apartheid.

More than 300 people were killed and thousands of businesses were pillaged and razed.

In the related video below, the business sector details the impact of the July unrest: 

-Additional reporting by Reuters