DA welcomes SCA’s ruling that Jacob Zuma’s medical parole was illegal
21 November 2022
The DA welcomes the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to uphold the Gauteng High Court’s finding that former president Jacob Zuma’s medical parole was illegal.
On 10 September 2021, the DA applied to the Gauteng High Court to review and set aside Correctional Services Commissioner Arthur Fraser’s decision to place former president Jacob Zuma on medical parole. Our application resulted in the High Court declaring Mr Zuma’s medical parole unlawful and ordering him to return to prison. The Department of Correctional Services appealed this judgement, unsuccessfully.
Today’s SCA judgement orders that Mr Zuma must return to the Estcourt Correctional Centre to finish serving his prison sentence. But the SCA stopped short of ruling on the matter of 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, saying that this is a matter to be considered by the Commissioner.
The SCA did, however, express its disapproval that while this judgement was pending, the Department of Correctional Services released a media statement saying that Mr Zuma had completed his sentence. The SCA rightly pointed out that this pronouncement was premature given that the issue was pending before the court, and that it potentially undermines the judicial process, particularly since the Department of Correctional Services was an appellant in the matter.