Zuma’s appeal to be heard on Tuesday

Former president Jacob Zuma. Picture: Masi Losi

Former president Jacob Zuma. Picture: Masi Losi

Published Dec 18, 2021

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The appeal to overturn the judgment that set aside the medical parole of former president Jacob Zuma will be heard on Tuesday.

This was confirmed by the Jacob Zuma Foundation on Saturday, saying Zuma looked forward to the appeal hearing.

“Despite serious issues with the availability of president Zuma’s legal team, however, in the interests of the country all efforts have been made to honour the date proposed by the judge,” the foundation said in statement.

Spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi said Zuma’s counsel have availed themselves for the court date.

“They decided to go out of their way to make sure that in the interest of ensuring calm in the country, and in the interest of making sure the anger and provocation inflicted on the people must not flare up, that they must go there and have this matter settled once and for all,” Manyi said.

On Wednesday, Judge Keoagile Elias Matojane revoked the medical parole authorised by former correctional services commissioner Arthur Fraser.

Matojane ordered the return of Zuma to prison and that the time he spent on medical parole be not counted as time served in prison.

He also ordered Zuma and Fraser pay legal costs.

The news of appeal date came as the ANC said it indicated that it did not want the party to be involved in the bid to appeal the court decision.

The party in KwaZulu-Natal had asked that the national leaders allow them to be a friend of the court when the appeal was heard.

However, the party said in a statement issued after the national executive committee (NEC) that it noted the judgement by the Pretoria High Court and the decision by the Department of Correctional Services to also appeal the ruling by Judge Matojane.

“The NEC calls for the legal processes to be allowed to take their course, and will remain seized with the matter,” ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe said.

But, ANC KwaZulu-Natal secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli said that they were of the view that the judgement was littered with examples of injustice that could not go unchallenged.

Ntuli said the case was brought up by the DA, which was joined by the Helen Suzman Foundation and AfriForum.

He also said people who were unhappy with the judgement and Zuma going back to prison could ventilate anger in a way that caused problems to the ANC and society in general.

He also said they could not sit on the sidelines and do nothing because they did not take for granted the threats being made on social media should Zuma be sent back to jail.

“We also agreed that we are to engage our structures for them to better understand the historical position and how we think it should be handled going forward,” Ntuli added.

Political Bureau

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