Staff Reporter.
Former president Jacob Zuma was spotted out and about on Friday for the first time since he was granted medical parole, at Sibaya Casino in Durban.
Zuma was reportedly meeting close allies at the establishment owned by his friend, Durban businessman Vivian Reddy. Among those at the meeting was suspended ANC member and the spokesperson of the disbanded MKMVA Carl Niehaus and former South African Airways chairperson Dudu Myeni.
He was jailed for contempt of court after he refused to appear before the State Capture Commission. Last month, the Department of Correctional Services announced that Zuma had secured medical parole after serving a fraction of his 15-month sentence at the Estcourt Correctional Centre in KwaZulu-Natal.
Zuma’s visit to the Durban casino raised questions about the medical parole conditions he was under. It comes after Zuma told supporters during a prayer service on Thursday that he could not attend the event because of the conditions.
Department of Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo confirmed Zuma made a request to leave his residence to be in another town and this was approved by his monitoring official.
“We can, therefore, confirm that permission was granted. This is in line with his parole conditions,” he added.
Meanwhile the Jacob Zuma Foundation has lashed out at a Sunday Times report and photos of Zuma at the Sibaya Casino in Durban.
The foundation’s spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi told News24 it was “stupid” to suggest that the meeting was “secret”.
“How can a meeting be secret in a public hotel? That alone is stupid. President Zuma is not short of secret venues. If that’s what he wanted to have, why would he have a secret meeting? The report is stupid and it fails to differentiate between medical parole and house arrest. It’s only when a person is under house arrest where you can question them being seen anywhere else other than by their house. If he was under house arrest this would have been very different,” said Manyi.
The Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) has been calling for the justice and correctional services departments to make Zuma’s parole conditions public.