By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former president Jacob Zuma’s legal team has delivered his application for leave to appeal Wednesday’s judgment by the Pretoria High Court overturning his release on medical parole.
The Jacob Zuma Foundation announced on Twitter that the former president wanted to appeal the high court’s judgment at the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein.
The foundation said Zuma was appealing the ruling “on the grounds that the judgment is clearly wrong and there are strong prospects that a higher court will come to a totally different conclusion”.
Judge Elias Matojane ruled that former national commissioner of correctional services Arthur Fraser’s decision to place Zuma on medical parole in September was unlawful and ordered that the former president should return to jail to serve out the remainder of his 15-month sentence imposed by the Constitutional Court (ConCourt).
Matojane ruled that Fraser’s 5 September decision was “reviewed, declared unlawful, and set aside”.
The judge said that the Medical Parole Advisory Board (MPAB) was the statutory body that should be utilised to make recommendations regarding the granting of medical parole, as it was established to do exactly that. “The Commissioner does not have the medical expertise to overrule the recommendation of the Board,” he said.
Fraser’s decision to place Zuma on medical parole meant that he had “impermissibly usurped the statutory functions of the Board.”
The former president’s release on medical parole, not even two months after starting his sentence, caused uproar amongst the South African public and brought into serious question the impartiality of correctional services and Fraser in particular.
Had he not have been released on medical parole, Zuma’s sentence would have officially ended in October 2022.
The Correctional Services Department says it will also appeal the judgment against Zuma and it is convinced that another court may arrive at a different conclusion.
It says the court sadly misinterpreted the Correctional Services Act and erred in its ruling.
Meanwhile the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) says arresting Zuma is nothing but political revenge. If the law must serve the purpose of rehabilitation or bringing order to society, what is the purpose of arresting Zuma again? Why is Zuma a threat to society or what need is there to rehabilitate him? It’s the malicious use of the law.
The point is that he must be corrected and in this case, it looks like there is a clear mandate to punish as opposed to correct.”