Former South African President Jacob Zuma has been granted a presidential “special pardon” and will not be jailed again to serve a 15-month prison sentence, the South African government announced on Friday.
The announcement was made this Friday at a press conference in Pretoria, the country’s capital, by the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola, and the National Commissioner for Correctional Services, Makgothi Thobakgale.
The South African official indicated that the President of the Republic, Cyril Ramaphosa, approved a “special pardon” for “non-violent” offenders in the country.
Ramaphosa became president in 2018, replacing Jacob Zuma, forced to resign before the end of his term by his party, the African National Congress (ANC), after nine years of government embroiled in scandals and accusations of mismanagement of public affairs. .
Last month, South Africa’s Constitutional Court, the country’s highest court of justice, dismissed an appeal by the South African government against Zuma’s reincarceration, ordered by the High Court of Appeals over Zuma’s medical probation.
Jacob Zuma, 81, had been on medical parole since August 6, 2021, out of prison where he was serving a 15-month sentence for refusing to appear before a commission of inquiry into public corruption during his term as president, between 2009 and 2018.
In July 2021, South Africa experienced a wave of violence for more than a week after the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma, which caused more than 300 deaths and more than 2,500 arrests, according to the South African Presidency.
The former South African head of state was arrested at his residence in Nkandla, in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, in the southeast of the country, to be imprisoned in the renovated Estcourt Correctional Center.
This was the first time in South African history that a former president had been sentenced to prison.
At least 40,000 South African businesses, including 161 shopping malls, were looted, burned or vandalized in violent protests for two weeks.
In economic terms, the South African government estimated that the violence will cost the economy 50 billion rand, or 3.4 billion dollars (about three million euros).
Zuma faces other legal problems, including charges related to bribes, which he allegedly received during an arms deal in South Africa in 1999.
Source: TSF
