Cape Town – Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has reportedly criticised the move by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to seek to have former president Jacob Zuma’s medical parole reviewed.
According to EWN, Malema called for Zuma’s privacy to be respected, saying that medical issues were personal matters and should not be placed in the hands of lawyers of his political opponents.
“We are Africans. When a person is sick, we respect them. When a person is dead, we respect them. We don’t fight people on their deathbed, we’re not brought up like that. It’s what these white minorities enjoy, questioning people on their deathbed, let them continue with their colonial mentality,” the report quoted Malema as saying.
The DA, on Friday, reportedly filed urgent papers in the North Gauteng High Court in which it wanted the decision to grant Zuma medical parole to be reviewed.
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The DA also claimed in the application that there was no way that Zuma could have been granted parole without President Cyril Ramaphosa’s knowledge.
The party wanted the court to declare the decision unlawful and set it aside.
“We know the ANC has been looking for ways to get Mr Zuma out of jail from day one of his incarceration and now they got to use the trustee card of the medical parole they abused with Mr Schabir Shaik and Mr Selebi,” the report quoted the DA as saying in the court papers.
This came as Correctional Services Commissioner Arthur Fraser admitted during an interview with SABC’s Vuyo Mvoko on Wednesday that he alone decided to grant medical parole to Zuma.
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Zuma, who was jailed for 15 months for contempt of court after snubbing graft investigators, was on Sunday granted medical parole.
The 79-year-old has been hospitalised since August 6 at a health facility outside the prison where he had been incarcerated for ignoring a court order to testify before a judicial panel probing corruption during his nine-year tenure which lasted until 2018.
A report by Times Live said that the DA was seeking an order directing that Zuma be returned to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
