The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein has started hearing former president Jacob Zuma’s medical parole case.
Zuma and the Correctional Services Department are challenging the High Court judgment which declared his release unlawful.
The SCA in Bloemfontein is full to capacity ahead of Zuma’s medical parole appeal. #SABCNews #Zumaparole #ZumaSCA pic.twitter.com/bWdNnQMMtN
— Aphumelele Mdlalane (@AphumeleleMdla2) August 15, 2022
The then Correctional Services commissioner Arthur Fraser had argued that the law had empowered him to release inmates sentenced to less than two years in prison.
However, the Helen Suzman Foundation, the Democratic Alliance (DA), and the lobby group AfriForum contend that Fraser acted outside the scope of his legal powers.
The Jacob Zuma Foundation’s spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi says the case is another attempt to undermine the former president’s integrity.
Manyi says, “We think that the whole case is really misplaced. We shouldn’t be here dealing with people that are challenging the decisions of Correctional Services, which Arthur Fraser had to do. Indeed, we think that this case is a political thing. This is all about destroying anything that seeks to challenge the establishment.”
Rule of law
The DA leader John Steenhuisen is among the prominent people that are attending the hearing of Zuma’s case.
Steenhuisen says the DA wants to ensure that the rule of law is upheld and Zuma serves his 15 months jail sentence for contempt of court.
He says, “We believe that one of the key founding principles of any democracy is equality before the law. There should be no special treatment for former presidents and it shouldn’t matter whether an ordinary citizen or a former president, the law must apply equally to you.”
“We are also pursuing this case vigorously because we are hopeful that following the Zondo Commission of Inquiry that there will be many more arrests for those involved in state capture and we want to close off this fast, look (at) loophole of medical parole to ensure that those people do not slip out of the net,” Steenhuisen adds.
He says South Africa cannot have two sets of laws, one for African National Congress (ANC) cadres and another for the rest of the country.
“Mr Zuma did not qualify for medical parole. And the fact that his own papers are changing the criteria for medical parole to the fact that there could have been violence if he was sent to jail shows that case altogether. We can’t have two sets of laws in the Republic of SA; one for the ANC, and their connected caders, and one for the rest of us. We must have equality before the law and that is what we are here to ensure.”
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Additional reporting by Nomsa Mazibuko and Kamogelo Seekoei
