The remand of former President Jacob Zuma to prison by a South African Court of Appeal, which finds his release on health grounds was unlawful, is
"an exercise in cruelty",
the foundation said on Tuesday. the person concerned.
Surrounded by corruption scandals, forced to resign in 2018, the 80-year-old former head of state, a figure in the fight against apartheid, was sentenced in June 2021 to 15 months in prison for having stubbornly refused to testify before a commission to investigate corruption under his presidency (2009-2018).
His imprisonment the following month had triggered an unprecedented wave of violence, in a tense socio-economic context, killing 350 people.
Two months later,
"Unjust act"
But the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled on Monday that
"the parole for medical reasons of Jacob Zuma was against the law"
, in a decision of which AFP obtained a copy.
In a statement released on Tuesday evening, Jacob Zuma's foundation called the decision an
"unjust act"
, adding that
"it is nothing but an exercise in cruelty and humiliating punishment".
The head of prison services had granted conditional release against the advice of the institution's medical committee.
Medical experts had estimated that Jacob Zuma
“does not meet the required conditions”.
Jacob Zuma's state of health remains largely opaque.
According to the multiple medical reports cited in the appeals court decision, he suffers from problems with blood pressure, high blood sugar levels as well as severe colon damage.
The ex-president's foundation was indignant:
"On what legal basis can an expired and fully served conviction be brought out of its grave by a court of law?"
It remains to Jacob Zuma the option of seizing the Constitutional Court, the highest judicial body in the country, to try to have the decision to send him back behind bars overturned.