A South African court on Monday ordered former president Jacob Zuma to return to prison after confirming that the medical leave granted to him in September was illegal, stressing that the former president «has not finished serving his sentence».
«Zuma, according to the law, has not completed serving his sentence,» the Supreme Court of Appeal has said in a unanimous ruling that the former president be returned to prison in Estcourt, in the state of KwaZulu-Natal.
It said his remaining period of incarceration should be determined by the Commissioner of Correctional Services, including the possibility of taking into account the period he has spent on medical leave, according to South African newspaper ‘The Times’.
Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt of court after refusing to testify in a corruption case, a sentence that triggered the most violent protests in the country’s recent history, which resulted in almost half a hundred deaths.
The Department of Correctional Services said in early September that the former president was «on medical parole» and added that «he will complete the remainder of his sentence in the community corrections system, where he will comply with specific conditions and will be subject to supervision until his sentence is satisfied».
Following this, the Zuma Foundation -founded by the former president- indicated on October 7 that he was free to complete the 15 months since the sentence was handed down, although the ruling of the Supreme Court of Appeal leaves this up in the air, given the possibility that he will have to serve the time he has been on probation in prison.
Zuma was the first democratically elected president in South Africa to be sentenced to prison since the African National Congress (ANC)–the party he headed between 2007 and 2017, when he was sidelined in an internal council by his deputy president and current leader, Cyril Ramaphosa–took power in 1994.
