DURBAN - IN AN ATTEMPT to keep former president Jacob Zuma in prison, the DA is expected to file court papers in the North Gauteng High Court on Friday to challenge the Correctional Services decision to grant Zuma medical parole.
Party leader John Steenhuisen said on Wednesday that his party had filed their request through the Promotion of Access to Information Act to access details of criteria used by the parole board to grant Zuma medical parole.
He said the party was pursuing the matter and would file court papers to challenge the decision.
Zuma handed himself over to police in July to begin 15 months in jail for contempt of court, the culmination of a long legal drama. Zuma was admitted to the Department of Correctional Services in Estcourt. The court handed the sentence to Zuma for defying an instruction to give evidence at an inquiry into corruption during his nine years in power until 2018.
“We are working on filing court papers to stop the release,” said Steenhuisen.
The DA was also the first political party to put up an election poster in Durban, on Wednesday for upcoming local government elections. The first poster was put on a pole across from the ANC provincial head office in Stalwart Simelane (Stanger) Street in the city.
The Constitutional Court ruled that the election should be between October 27 and November 1.
The IEC (Electoral Commission of South Africa) announced September 18 and 19 as the voter registration weekend and September 20 and 21 as the deadline for candidate registration.
Steenhuisen announced that his party has filed papers to both the Constitutional and electoral courts to stop the ANC resubmitting its candidate lists. He said he was surprised by the IEC’s decision to re-open the process.
“These actions leave people asking whether IEC commissioners were also beneficiaries of cadre deployment by the ANC. We were shocked by the sudden change,” he said.
“We will contest all the wards in all municipalities countrywide. We are not concerned if we would lose black votes after losing senior leaders like Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba and former party leader Mmusi Maimane.”
ANC spokesperson in the province Nhlakanipho Ntombela, said the party was not bothered by the DA challenge.
IEC provincial spokesperson Thabani Ngwira said the court ruling was clear, it granted rights to amend the timetable, which the IEC has done.
Daily News