South African President Cyril Ramaphosa granted clemency to thousands of non-violent offenders, including his predecessor Jacob Zuma who was convicted of contempt of court thereby, avoiding unrest in the country.
The nation’s prison authority freed former President Zuma after he was re-incarcerated for less than two hours on Friday.
Zuma, 81, was “admitted” to a prison in Estcourt in eastern South Africa early in the morning, and then freed after he was “subjected to administrative processes,” Makgothi Thobakgale, the national commissioner of the Department of Correctional Services, told reporters in Pretoria, the capital.
Jacob Zuma Remission
Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola outlined this decision to members of the media in Hatfield, Pretoria on Friday morning.
In July, the Constitutional Court upheld the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA)’s ruling that former Correctional Services Commissioner Arthur Fraser’s 2021 decision to grant Zuma medical parole just two months into his 15-month contempt sentence was unlawful.
That ruling left it to Makgothi Thobakgale, who was appointed acting commissioner after Fraser’s term of office subsequently came to an end, to decide if the time Zuma had spent on medical parole should count as time served regardless.
Ultimately, though, he’s now been granted a remission of his sentence.
The Department of Correctional Services said that he was one of thousands of inmates who’d been granted such a remission in a bid to alleviate overcrowding in prisons.
No Free Groceries For South Africans
There was a huge threat of violence had Jacob Zuma been arrested.
On Thursday, social media was abuzz with messages indicating how some South Africans were ready to react to his incarceration.
The country is still reeling from the effects of his initial arrest in July 2021.
The country was brought to its knees as massive protests, looting and attacks erupted in many parts of South Africa.
The 2021 unrest, also known as the July Unrest, was a wave of civil rioting in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng that lasted from July 9-18 in 2021. It was described as the worst violence that the country had experienced since the end of apartheid.
At least 354 people had lost their lives in the unrest and about 5,500 people had been arrested in connection with the unrest.
Businesses and the economy were also still dealing with the aftermath of that destructive period.
