Arthur Fraser

Jacob Zuma argues that former prisons boss Arthur Fraser displayed 'exemplary leadership' in granting him medical parole.

It was not the basis for granting medical parole that I was 79 years of age and a former head of state. “I am quite aware that to some specific sections of our society, including the parties seeking to have me incarcerated, the possibility of my death may well be an ‘irrelevant’ or even joyous occasion. But, he added, he was not pointing this out to “support or condone wanton violence”. “I was indeed 79 years of age and a former head of state. Since his release, the 80-year-old has been attending meetings, launched a collection of his speeches in book form at an hours-long event, and has been photographed at a restaurant opening where he danced with friends and family. Those are facts that do not ground a basis for the granting of medical parole, but are correct [and] relevant information in describing who it is the commissioner was considering for medical parole. In any event, it is not correct that advanced age and frailty are ‘irrelevant’ to a person’s medical status.” He said that the “public violence” following his arrest and jailing may have been viewed by the court as irrelevant to the granting of his medical parole, but was “a responsible reflection of what the public could believe if, for instance, I died in prison in circumstances where the commissioner had information about my medical condition”. He asked that the apex court make a final decision on this. Zuma continued in his affidavit that the SCA had erred in finding that his age, status as former president, the riots sparked in July 2021 by his jailing, and the lack of facilities in correctional services to adequately attend to his “medical condition”, were irrelevant to an application for medical parole. A key component of both the high court and the SCA rulings was that the Medical Parole Advisory Board, empowered by the Correctional Services Act to assess whether an inmate qualified for medical parole or not, had found that Zuma did not qualify. In November, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) upheld a December 2021 ruling by the Pretoria High Court that Fraser’s granting of medical parole to Zuma was “irrational, unlawful and unconstitutional”.