The #FreeJacobZuma campaign welcomes that medical parole was granted to President Zuma and reiterates that his imprisonment was always politically motivated and illegal
6 September 2021
The #FreeJacobZuma campaign is grateful that President Jacob Zuma has been granted medical parole by the Department of Correctional Services. While our gratefulness is informed by our deep concern for President Zuma’s well being, we are certainly not impressed by the actions of the Constitutional Court (CC). We reiterate our unequivocal belief that the political imprisonment of President Zuma was right from the out start illegal, and that he should never have been imprisoned.
Let us spell out once again the background to the current situation: President Zuma’s legal rights were undermined by the Constitutional Court in as much as he was sentenced without a trial, through an angry, emotionally worded and vindictive judgement, which compromised President Zuma’s most basic human rights both in terms of our National Constitution, and the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Right from the beginning when the vindictive CC judgement against President Zuma was announced by the then Acting Chief Justice, Sisi Kampepe, we argued that the highest court cannot sit as a court of first instance in what was not even a trial, but a legal procedure, because the convicted person does not have a right of review or appeal.
Inter alia, Article 14(5) of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that every person convicted of an offense shall have a right to have his/her conviction and sentence reviewed by a higher court. Section 39 of our South African Constitution states that the Constitutional Court must take into account international law when interpreting the Bill of Rights.
Taking all of the above into consideration the case of President Zuma becomes a done deal. The Constitutional Court violated Article 14(5), and the Constitutional Court judges know very well what they have done. In fact the Directions that they issued for submissions about whether the Constitutional Court is obliged to consider the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with regards to Sections 12(1)(b) and 35(3) of our national Constitution, is a tacit acknowledgement that they have erred badly in their indecent haste to imprison President Zuma.
However, instead of having the courage to acknowledge that they have erred, the Constitutional Court judges undermined and belittled themselves by behaving like small-time schemers, dodging and diving through pathetically transparent delaying tactics, trying to escape their culpability, and a constitutional crisis that is solely of their own making. Such are the consequences of the judges in the highest court of our country having allowed themselves to be made the ‘handlangers' (henchmen) of factional politicians.
It is our contention that the in-ordinary delays are not simply because the Constitutional Court judges are sleeping on the job - bad as this may be - but that these delays are deliberate and by design. The Department of Correctional Services has now placed President Zuma on medical parole, regardless of whatever the Constitutional Court may eventually say. Evidently the Constitutional Court judges are bargaining that the rescission application will be rendered moot, as in being of no political force or effect.
However, these unprincipled, compromised, Constitutional Court judges must not think they can fool us to be so easily left off the hook. They must do their job, and we will push for a judgement.
If the rescission is granted - as it should be - it will vacate the entire illegal conviction of President Zuma, and he will have no criminal record arising from the contempt issue. In effect this will mean that the parole itself will become invalid, because the underlying crime and conviction will be no longer there - it will be null and void.
Thus, in their indecent haste to serve their masters, the Constitutional Court judges, who wrote the majority judgement, imposing the vindictive 15 month prison sentence on President Zuma, have painted themselves into a corner. They have fundamentally compromised the Constitutional Court by having placed it in a self-imposed quandary.
If they try to stick to their initial judgement they will lose all credibility, as it is now crystal clear that they made a blatantly political decision to incarcerate President Zuma without a trial. If they rescind the whole judgement they lose even more credibility because President Zuma is so evidently a victim of malicious judicial incompetence. It is truly a mess, but they do not deserve our sympathy. They must stew in the poisonous witches’ brew that they have tried to cook up for President Zuma.
Similarly, we also reiterate our call that the trumped up charges against President Zuma in the so-called ‘arms deal’ trial should be withdrawn unconditionally and with immediate effect. It is evident that political machinations, and the abuse of the NPA for factional political purposes, have totally muddied the waters. President Zuma will never be able to get a free and fair trial.
The #FreeJacobZuma campaign wishes President Zuma all of the very best as he recuperates further, and continues to receive medical treatment. It is our ardent hope that Nxamalala will soon be well enough to return home to his Nkandla residence to be with his loved ones, family and fellow comrades.
At the earliest appropriate time we will certainly receive President Zuma back home in a manner that befits his stature as a liberation fighter and great statesman.
A LUTA CONTINUA!
Issued by Carl Niehaus on behalf of #FreeJacobZuma campaign, 6 September 2021
