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Tag: Jacob Zuma South Africa

  • South Africa: Ex-president Jacob Zuma positioned on medical parole amid hypothesis about his well being

    South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma, who’s serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court docket, has been granted medical parole due to his in poor health well being, jail authorities mentioned on Sunday.
    Zuma, 79, was sentenced in June after shedding his attraction within the nation’s apex court docket for his constant refusal to seem earlier than the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, the place a number of witnesses have implicated him in corruption. He is accused of enabling the plunder of state coffers throughout his practically nine-year keep in workplace from 2009 to 2018.
    “Medical parole placement for Mr Zuma means that he will complete the remainder of the sentence in the system of community corrections, whereby he must comply with a specific set of conditions and will be subjected to supervision until his sentence expires,” the Department of Correctional Services mentioned in an announcement on Sunday.
    “We want to reiterate that placement on medical parole is an option available to all sentenced offenders, provided they meet all the requirements. We appeal to all South Africans to afford Mr Zuma dignity as he continues to receive medical treatment,” the assertion added.
    Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo mentioned he couldn’t disclose Zuma’s actual situation, however quoted the related laws which allowed for one of these parole.
    “It has to be someone who is terminally ill or is physically incapacitated, so it’s an inmate whose daily activity is now limited and someone who is unable to afford what we call selfcare. Therefore, that person has to be considered for (parole) placement on medical grounds,” Nxumalo instructed Newzroom Afrika (sic).
    Nxumalo mentioned the Department had obtained unbiased medical studies from each its personal docs and the army docs from the South African Defence Force recommending the parole.
    Last week, Zuma had refused a request from the National Prosecuting Authority that its docs be allowed to look at him independently as particulars of his sicknesses couldn’t be divulged.
    On July 7, Zuma handed himself over to authorities to start his 15-month jail sentence, sparking protests which quickly escalated into large violence, looting and the deaths of over 300 folks in two of South Africa’s essential provinces – KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

    While in jail, Zuma was first taken to the jail medical wing earlier than being transferred to an exterior hospital for undisclosed remedies, leading to him being unable to attend court docket proceedings final month in a separate trial for graft costs that has been happening for greater than a decade.
    The Jacob Zuma Foundation welcomed the parole determination.
    “It just shows that there is some humaneness in the system, but on the other hand it also indicates the precariousness state of President Zuma’s health,” Foundation spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi mentioned.
    Manyi mentioned Zuma was nonetheless in hospital underneath the supervision of the jail authorities and wouldn’t be residence this night already as his legal professionals examine the assertion by the Department and its implications.
    Legal analyst Mphumelelo Zikalala instructed the channel that the parole officers should have taken Zuma’s well being under consideration.
    “In this case, the medical status of the former president must have been taken into consideration and they (would have) said it is much better that you go and heal outside and you make sure that you (have) a much better facility, being in the care of your family; being visited by your doctors without any restrictions, so that at the end of the day you are able to preserve your life,” Zikalala mentioned.

  • Ex-South African president Jacob Zuma sentenced to fifteen months in jail for contempt of courtroom

    South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma has been discovered responsible of contempt of courtroom and sentenced to fifteen months in jail for defying a courtroom order to look earlier than an inquiry probing wide-ranging allegations of corruption throughout his tenure from 2009 to 2018.
    Zuma was not in courtroom for the ruling on Tuesday and has been ordered at hand himself over inside 5 days to a police station in his hometown of Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province or in Johannesburg.
    This is the primary time in South Africa’s historical past {that a} former president has been sentenced to jail.
    Former South African President Jacob Zuma, sits within the High Court in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, Wednesday May 26, 2021, firstly of his corruption trial. (AP)
    The nation’s apex courtroom, the Constitutional Court, dominated that Zuma defied an order by the nation’s highest courtroom by refusing to cooperate with the fee of inquiry, which is chaired by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo.
    “The Constitutional Court holds that there can be no doubt that Mr. Zuma is in contempt of court. Mr. Zuma was served with the order and it is impossible to conclude anything other than that he was unequivocally aware of what it required of him,” stated performing chief justice Sisi Khampepe.
    She added that in figuring out the jail sentence for Zuma, the courtroom discovered it unimaginable to conclude that he would adjust to every other order.
    “Mr. Zuma has repeatedly reiterated that he would rather be imprisoned than to cooperate with the commission or comply with the order made,” stated Khampepe.
    Zuma has beforehand expressed his unwillingness to look earlier than the fee, which has thus far heard proof straight implicating Zuma in wrongdoing.
    In a earlier 21-page letter written to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, which the courtroom has described as “scandalous,” Zuma claimed that he was able to be despatched to jail.
    In his letter which he launched to the general public, Zuma claimed that the fee chairman, Zondo, was biased towards him and that proof offered towards him was politically motivated.

    Some former Cabinet ministers, high-ranking authorities officers and executives of state-owned enterprises are amongst witnesses who’ve implicated Zuma in corruption.
    Several have testified that whereas president Zuma allowed members of the controversial Gupta household to affect his appointment of Cabinet ministers and profitable contracts at state-owned corporations.
    Zuma can also be dealing with further authorized woes as he’s standing trial to face costs associated to bribes that he allegedly acquired throughout South Africa’s 1999 arms procurement deal.
    He has pleaded not responsible to the fees and his attorneys have utilized for the lead prosecutor in his case to step down due to alleged bias towards Zuma.