AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER
THE Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF), a non-profit public interest organisation, has launched an urgent high court application seeking a review or setting aside of the decision to grant medical parole to former South African President Jacob Zuma, who is serving a 15-month jail term.
The HSF has asked the court to order SA’s National Commissioner of Correctional Services Arthur Fraser to provide reasons as well as a full record of the decision.
The organisation has asked for copies of documents that formed part of the basis or were considered in making the decision. These documents should include any application for medical parole by Zuma and the medical report which the Department of Correctional Services publicly said was used as a basis.
The HSF also asked for:
- Any report on Zuma’s application for medical parole issued by any official of the Escourt Correctional Centre, including the Escourt Correctional Centre’s correctional medical practitioner.
- Any recommedations made by any individual on Zuma’s applications for medical parole.
In his supporting affidavit, the HSF’s Francis Antonie asked the court to declare that Fraser’s decision to grant Zuma medical parole was unlawful and set it aside.
Antonie said: “Mr Zuma’s sentence under the Constitutional Court order started on 8 July 2021 when under the threat of imminent arrest, he eventually reported to the Escourt Correctional Services Centre. This means that by the time the National Commissioner granted Mr Zuma medical parole, Mr Zuma had served just under two months of a 15 months sentence, less than a sixth of the total time to be served.
“Even if the National Commissioner’s decision is reviewed and set aside, the intervening time that Mr Zuma is unlawfully released on medical parole may still count towards his sentence. If so, then Mr Zuma would have benefitted from an unlawful reduction of his sentence. This would, in turn, erode the effectiveness of the Constitutional Court’s order – something that the National Commissioner, as an organ of the state, is duty-bound to avoid under section 165(4) of the Constitution. It would erode the rule of law.
“Even if this court can reinstate Mr Zuma’s full sentence such that any time on medical parole does not count towards fulfilment of Mr Zuma’s sentence, Mr Zuma’s current absence from prison does not accord with the requirements of the Constitutional Court order. He was ordered to serve 15 months in jail as of 8 July 2021. Mr Zuma is not entitled to an unconstitutional reprieve from his sentence. That reprieve was given to him by the National Commissioner at Mr Zuma’s instance. In this context, Mr Zuma is an effective cause of the illegality. Absent a full and proper accounting to justify him being released on medical parole, the rule of law requires the punctilious and full enforcement of the Constitutional Court order.”
