Cape Town – Former South African president Jacob Zuma’s family has reportedly demanded that he be released from jail “with no conditions”.
Zuma, 79, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt of court last month after snubbing graft investigators probing his presidency.
He turned himself in on July 8 at Estcourt Correctional Centre, around an hour’s drive from his rural Nkandla home.
“We want Zuma to be released with no conditions,” Times Live quoted Zuma’s eldest son, Edward, as saying in a statement.
Edward, according to the report, had earlier indicated that there were a few things that his father was not happy with in jail, “but we are OK with it, so long as they do not kill our father because that is a suspicion that we have.
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“…There are many things that they have been doing that point us to believe that they want this man dead. They do not want to see him alive and we want to say that they must stop doing what they are doing because we [are] aware of it.
“We want our father to come back very healthy and alive. We want him back in one piece, just like when they took him, because it won’t be nice if something happens to him”.
Zuma’s incarceration sparked riots and looting that escalated into the worst violence since the end of apartheid, killing more than 300 people, according to the official count.
Zuma was granted compassionate leave from prison last week so he could attend his brother’s funeral.
His brother died aged 77 after a long illness.
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Inmates in South Africa are usually allowed to attend relatives’ funerals – a right denied to the country’s first black president Nelson Mandela when he was in jail for fighting the apartheid regime.
After nine years in office, Zuma was ousted by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party in 2018 over a series of graft scandals that arose during his presidency.
The charismatic ex-leader retains a fervent support base both within the ANC and among the general public.
Zuma is also on trial for allegedly taking kickbacks from an arms deal with several international companies in 1999, when he was deputy president.
He fervently denies any wrongdoing.
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Additional reporting by AFP
