Former South African President Jacob Zuma has been given a presidential “special pardon” and will not be imprisoned again to serve a 15-month prison sentence.
The announcement was made this Friday by the South African government in Pretoria, the country’s capital, by the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola, and by the National Commissioner of Correctional Services, Makgothi Thobakgale.
The South African official indicated that the president of the republic, Cyril Ramaphosa, has approved a “special pardon” for “non-violent” offenders to solve “prison overcrowding” in the country.
According to the Department of Correctional Services, former President Jacob Zuma appeared in prison today – where he was paroled in September 2021 – so that the trial could continue.
Zuma was under constant surveillance by correctional services serving his sentence in the community. He was never a free man as of July 8, 2021,” underlined Makgothi Thobakgale, who stated that the former head of state will not serve the remainder of his 15-month prison sentence due to the announced pardon process.
Last month, a day after the country’s judiciary ruled his parole for medical reasons “illegal” and ordered his return to prison, Jacob Zuma traveled to Russia for “health reasons,” his spokesman said.
Ramaphosa became president in 2018 to replace Jacob Zuma, who was forced to resign before the end of his term by his party, the African National Congress (ANC), after a nine-year reign shrouded in scandal and allegations of mismanagement of public affairs.
Last month, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the country’s highest court, rejected an appeal by the South African government against Zuma’s reincarnation, ordered by the Supreme Court on the basis of medical probation granted to Zuma.
Jacob Zuma, aged 81, had been out of prison on parole since August 6, 2021, serving a 15-month sentence for refusing to appear before a commission of inquiry into corruption during his tenure as president, between 2009 and 2018.
In July 2021, South Africa experienced more than a week of violence following the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma, which the South African presidency says caused more than 300 deaths and more than 2,500 arrests.
The former South African head of state was arrested at his home in Nkandla, South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province in the south-east of the country, to be held in the renovated Estcourt Correctional Centre.
This was the first time in South African history that a former president was sentenced to prison.
At least 40,000 South African businesses, including 161 shopping malls, were looted, burned or destroyed during the violent two-week protests.
In economic terms, the South African government estimated that the violence will cost the economy R50 billion, or $3.4 billion.
The former president of South Africa and former leader of the ANC faces other legal troubles as he faces trial in the Superior Court of Pietermaritzburg, in the case of bribery and alleged public corruption in the 1999 purchase of weapons by the South Africa Democratic South after ‘apartheid’.
Source: DN
