The decision to not imprison former president Jacob Zuma was not informed by fears of impending unrest in the country, government officials dealing with his incarceration said on Friday.
Justice Minister Ronald Lamola has further insisted that neither he nor President Cyril Ramaphosa interfered in any way with Correctional Services Commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale’s decision on Zuma’s incarceration.
Thobakgale announced his decision to comply with the Supreme Court of Appeal judgment by ensuring that Zuma returned to prison on Friday morning.
He said Zuma arrived at the Estcourt Correctional Facility at 6am, was admitted into the system, processed and then left an hour later.
In a short statement at around 8.30am on Friday by the spokesperson of the Jacob Zuma Foundation, Mzwanele Manyi said that Zuma was at home and was in consultation with his legal team.
Zuma’s release was informed by Ramaphosa’s remission of sentence process which the former statesman seemed to be one of the first beneficiary’s of.
A remission of sentence, this is where the president uses the powers vested on him by the Constitution and the Correctional Services Act to grant remissions which effectively means cutting the sentence short.
Thobakgale said the special remissions process started on Thursday – the day his announcement on Zuma’s incarceration was to be made.
Lamola and Thobakgale tried vehemently to explain that the special remissions process was not engineered and tactfully kick-started to benefit Zuma.
Lamola said that the remission of sentence process granted to Zuma was part of a “parallel process” that was designed to address overcrowding in prisons, and was not a specific process designed for Zuma.
Thobakgale said that another 9,488 prisoners will be released under the process and a full list of the people who benefited from the special remission process would be released by the end of the day.
In July 2021, Zuma was hauled to the Estcourt Prison to serve his 15-months incarceration for contempt of court after he failed to appear before the State Capture Commission.
He served just two months of the sentence before being released on medical parole by former prison boss Arthur Fraser. The Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that Zuma’s release was unlawful.
