Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

2-minute read
17 July 2023 | 17:05 CAT

The Constitutional Court has dismissed the Correctional Services bid to overturn the SCA’s ruling that Jacob Zuma must return to jail. Image: Michele Spatari and stock images Source: Getty Images

Will former president Zuma have to return to jail? Following a Constitutional Court ruling, this is the question that there were “no reasonable prospects of success” in appealing against a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that he should return to prison after being unlawfully released early on medical parole in September 2021 by former prison boss Arthur Fraser. In that judgment, the SCA court stated that Zuma, in law, had not finished serving his sentence. He must return to the Estcourt Correctional Centre to do so.

The court said the application bore “no reasonable prospects of success”.

The SCA and the high court concurred that the remedy was for Zuma to return to prison.

However, the appellate court differed with Justice Elias Matojane. It said it should be left to the Department of correctional services to determine whether the 13 months he has spent on medical parole would count towards completing his sentence.

After Zuma’s first short incarceration, it has been two years since violent protests and looting erupted in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. Political Analyst Dirk Kotze told Radio Islam International there is a lingering fear that this may happen again if he is forced to return to jail.

“Given the fact there are so many factors that contribute toward such a situation as well as warnings from people from different quarters about the social economic situation in South Contributor, creating potential for these protests,” says Kotze.

Matojane had upheld an argument by the Helen Suzman Foundation that, should Zuma’s time on medical parole count towards serving his sentence, he would “unduly benefit from a lesser punishment than that imposed by the constitutional court” when it sentenced him to prison.

Listen to the full interview on Your World Today with Mufti Yusuf Moosagie.