Appeals court rules Zuma’s medical parole invalid

The Supreme Court of Appeal overturned a decision by the nation’s then-prisons boss to grant former President Jacob Zuma medical parole, and left open a decision on whether he should be returned to jail.

The former president was sentenced in July 2021 to 15 months in jail by the Constitutional Court over a charge of contempt when he refused to appear before a judicial probe investigating state corruption during his presidency. Zuma was released on medical parole in September 2021.

Zuma, in law, hasn’t finished serving his sentence and must return to prison, Judge Tati Makgoka said in a judgment on Monday.

“Whether the time spent by Mr Zuma on unlawfully granted medical parole should be taken into account in determining the remaining period of his incarceration, is not a matter for this court to decide,” Makgoka said. “It is a matter to be considered by the commissioner” of correctional services, he said.

© 2022 Bloomberg