The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria was on Tuesday set to hear former president Jacob Zuma’s request to appeal a ruling that he should return to jail after it set aside his medical parole on the grounds that “it was unlawful.”
Zuma was serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court after he defied instructions from the Constitutional Court that he should continue attending hearings at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture in Johannesburg.
The court ruled on December 15 that Zuma should return to jail after the 79-year-old because the procedure for his granting him medical parole in September did not follow set down rules.
But Zuma’s legal team filed an application immediately to appeal the ruling, and so was the country’s Ministry of Prisons whose former commissioner had granted the parole.
The foundation said its legal team would return to the Gauteng High Court to argue that former Correctional Services Commissioner Arthur Fraser acted within his powers when he granted Zuma medical parole in September.
“Judge (Elias) Matojane has indicated his intention to hear the application for leave to appeal on Tuesday (21 December),” the foundation said on Twitter.
Zuma handed himself in on 7 July to begin his prison sentence, triggering the worst violence South Africa had seen in years as his angry supporters took to the streets to trash property and thousands of businesses, leaving behind over 300 people dead and US$2 billion in damages.
NM/jn/APA