Johannesburg – South African civil and opposition groups were on Monday seeking clarity over the circumstances under which ex-president Jacob Zuma was granted medical parole days ahead of his graft trial.
Just 60 days into his 15-month jail term for defying an order to answer questions before graft investigators, prison authorities announced on Sunday that the 79-year-old politician was placed on medical parole.
Zuma was hospitalised a month into his incarceration, at a facility outside the prison, under the care of military medics. He remains there and his illness remains a closely guarded secret.
But the granting of parole has raised the ire of opposition and civil society groups, who suspect it was a politically inspired move and want answers.
The decision coincided with a weekend meeting of the ruling African National Congress’s National Executive Committee.
ALSO READ | Jacob Zuma granted medical parole: What does it mean?
“It’s extremely suspicious,” John Steenhuisen, leader of the largest opposition Democratic Alliance said. “This is a political decision, not a medical decision.”
He and other opposition figures have vowed to force the prisons to publish details outlining the steps taken to reach the parole decision.
Mmusi Maimane, leader of pressure group One South Africa movement, said the action demonstrated that “if you are politically connected, the inside of the prison is not a place for you”.
But a prisons official insisted the decision was above board and based on doctors’ conclusions.
“Mr Zuma does require a great deal of medical attention” and met the criteria for medical parole, the official said, while declining to disclose Zuma’s illness.
ALSO READ | ‘It’s a mockery of SA law!’ Opposition parties slam Jacob Zuma’s medical parole
Lawson Naidoo, head of a civic group, the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, said “the timing of the announcement, apart from coming on a Sunday afternoon, does raise questions because… Mr Zuma would have been eligible for parole in a few weeks’ time, having served the minimum requirement for a 15-month jail sentence”.
The news came just three days before the resumption on Thursday of Zuma’s long-running corruption trial over an arms deal dating back more than two decades.
Last month, the trial was postponed to September 9, pending a medical report on his fitness to stand trial.
“Given Mr Zuma’s elongated Stalingrad strategy in terms of avoiding having to answer charges of fraud and corruption related to the arms deal, it would come as no surprise to anyone if this medical parole is now going to be used… as a pretext to say he is not fit to stand trial,” he said.
Another opposition group, ActionSA, complained that the parole pointed to a “criminal justice system (that) treats the most powerful amongst us with kid gloves and allows them to evade justice and accountability at the first opportunity”.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
