Jacob Zuma

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein will hear the appeal of the former president Jacob Zuma on his release on medical parole.

Jamie contends that Mafa, the military doctor who Mpofu says found that Zuma was terminally ill, was not a disinterested medical practitioner. Makgoka says that Mafa had the benefit of examining Zuma and could therefore make findings about his condition. Dr LJ Mphatswe was sent to examine Zuma, on behalf of the medical parole advisory board. He says it is therefore completely appropriate that the Board - as a body of medical experts - be tasked with determining whether an inmate qualifies for medical parole. Jamie says there is no suggestion that it did not do so - and points out that the Board referred to the fact that Zuma suffered from multiple co-morbidities. He has conditions that require management, but that is not the standard for medical parole.” “It states, instead, that he has a complex medical condition which predispose (sic) him to unpredictable medical fallouts or events of high-risk clinical picture'. It talks about 'the unpredictability of his plausible life-threatening cardiac and neurological events'. Matojane found that Fraser had “mitigated” against the contempt sentence imposed by the Constitutional Court. Plasket adds that Engelbrecht’s argument seems to be a “lawyer’s point, divorced from the real world”. Mpofu contends that Dr Mphatswe - the medical parole advisory board doctor who examined Zuma and recommended his release - “doubled up” as a correctional services doctor. He says Mphatswe “must have felt that there was a terminal illness”. Mpofu argues that Mphatswe received specialised medical reports from Zuma’s doctors.

As a former statesman, ex-president Jacob Zuma has mastered the art of avoiding his day in court.

Zuma’s defence team has thus far failed to provide the court with any evidence of his supposed terminal illness. Apart from wanting to protect his alleged friendship with Zondo, Zuma has also previously used a number of legal challenges and medical delays, forcing the clock to run out on the Commission before he would have to appear. Zondo then referred the matter to the Constitutional Court, which in turn ordered Zuma to present his version of events on state capture at the commission. Zuma also refused to present himself before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry investigating the capture and hollowing out of state organs during his tenure as president. The former head of state managed to leave prison on medical parole just two months into his incarceration (for defying a Constitutional Court order compelling him to attend the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into state capture.) As a former statesman, ex-president Jacob Zuma has had his fair share of run-ins with the law, and he’s mastered the art of avoiding his day in court, ironically by spending plenty of time in court.

The supreme court of appeal asked how it could accept this when the medical reports had been redacted.

The high court said this was not reasoning allowed by the act, as it undermined the rule of law. The three applicants had asked for access to the records on a confidential basis but Zuma refused. It is not good enough to say ‘trust me, I looked at everything and I took this decision and it is the correct decision.’ It may have stabilised because of medical intervention, and it cannot be said now that he is no longer terminally ill.” But Mphalehle said it could be inferred tacitly from Fraser’s decision that Zuma was terminally ill. He further broke the law in that it makes terminal illness or incapacitation a prerequisite for medical parole.

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein has started hearing former president Jacob Zuma's medical parole case. Zuma and the Correctional Services ...

We must have equality before the law and that is what we are here to ensure.” We can’t have two sets of laws in the Republic of SA; one for the ANC, and their connected caders, and one for the rest of us. Manyi says, “We think that the whole case is really misplaced.

The former South African president was sentenced to prison last year but granted medical parole after just two months.

In December, the court overturned Zuma's parole, ruling that the head of the prison service who made the decision was not justified in doing so. The violence affected the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal before spreading to Johannesburg, killing more than 350 people and damaging the country's economy. The 80-year-old was jailed in July 2021 after being sentenced to 15 months for contempt of court.

Mandy Wiener speaks to Eyewitness News parliamentary reporter, Babalo Ndenze, for the latest on former president Jacob Zuma's medical parole appeal.

Read More Read More He was then granted medical parole by Fraser, after being admitted to the hospital just a few days after his arrest.

The DA, AfriForum and the Helen Suzman Foundation challenged Arthur Fraser's decision to grant Jacob Zuma medical parole after the former president served ...

The medical parole advisory board had recommended against Zuma's release. "How can a court of law know better than medical experts? "I mean, it's an advisory board.

'The evidence and the law point overwhelmingly to the fact that Mr Fraser's efforts to ignore or to override the [medical parole] board are a textbook ...

The report from the board was simply an “additional report”, he said, that could be used by the commissioner in coming to a determination. Such an illness could simply be under control because of medical intervention. A number of specialist doctors had supplied reports that were utilised by the board in making its decision. This was an “embedded power”, he said, and the recommendation would be value-based. The board declared that Zuma’s treatment for his undisclosed condition had been optimised. “They are not irreversible and won’t lead to imminent death. Should Zuma lose the case relating to his medical parole and have to return to prison, there are fears that his supporters will again be incited to riot and loot. Zuma’s release was challenged in the Pretoria High Court by the Democratic Alliance, the Helen Suzman Foundation and AfriForum last year. Zuma was ordered back to jail to complete his sentence. Fraser had “cherry-picked” the medical reports to decide on Zuma’s parole, said Du Plessis. He had utilised the reports of the former president’s personal military physician, and a Correctional Services physician, which recommended medical parole, but had not mentioned the reports from the specialists that the advisory board had relied on to deny the parole. The release came just two months after the former president was sentenced to 15 months in jail by the Constitutional Court on contempt charges. Fraser had “committed palpable errors,” said Du Plessis. “And the evidence and the law point overwhelmingly to the fact that Mr Fraser’s efforts to ignore or to override the board are a textbook spectacle of unlawfulness.”

Former president Jacob Zuma could not escape the fact that the medical parole board did not find that he was terminally ill, lawyers arguing the case for ...

He was jailed for flouting a constitutional court order that he testify before the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture. But Du Plessis said after further medical advice was received from specialists, the board concluded on 2 September that he did not suffer from any terminal disease. You cannot cure the person, and that is the crux.” “To all of us, as lay persons, if someone says someone is terminally ill, we all shudder, we all have a very good idea of what it means. However, when asked whether it was irreversible, he replied in the negative. Former president Jacob Zuma could not escape the fact that the medical parole board did not find that he was terminally ill, lawyers arguing the case for his return to prison told the Supreme Court of Appeal on Monday.

The appeals court on Monday heard submissions from Zuma and the Department of Correctional Services where they argued that former commissioner, ...

The appeals court on Monday heard submissions from Zuma and the Department of Correctional Services where they argued that former commissioner, Fraser, acted lawfully when he granted Zuma parole on medical grounds. The appeals court on Monday heard submissions from Zuma and the Department of Correctional Services where they argued that former commissioner, Arthur Fraser, acted lawfully when he granted Zuma parole on medical grounds.