A court in South Africa on Wednesday ordered the return of former President Jacob Zuma, 79, to prison, after overturning a previous decision that had placed him on parole for unspecified medical reasons.
The South African has been detained since July, when he turned himself in to the police after being sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt of court, as he failed to attend hearings called by a commission investigating corruption charges against his government.
The lawsuits against him, which span his nine-year period as head of the country, are seen as a test of the post-apartheid South African justice system’s ability to enforce the rule of law, especially when investigations involve politicians. traditional and government-related entrepreneurs.
The arrest of the former African leader unleashed a wave of demonstrations and violence in the country, which left more than 330 people dead and affected thousands of companies that were looted. The protests unfolded into aggression and saw claims related to historical social inequalities being added to the agenda.
Zuma’s defense, through a profile of the foundation that bears his name on social media, said he had already presented the documentation to appeal the decision, which he classified as “clearly wrong”. “We have strong prospects that a higher court will come to an entirely different conclusion,” he wrote.
It is unclear when Zuma will return to prison. The country’s Department of Correctional Services, responsible for administering the prison system, said it would appeal the decision to remove the former president from parole, and the defense’s appeal is yet to be considered by authorities.
Wednesday’s order comes just days after the former president released a book in which he promises to clear up some of the “false stories” about him — copies of the work, according to information from South African portal TimesLive, were sold out within hours.
The money obtained from the sale of the book, according to the former president, will be used to pay the costs of his defense in the corruption charges. His foundation also started an online fundraising and donation campaign to pay the expenses.
Zuma’s presidency, for two terms, from 2009 to 2018, was marred by widespread allegations of corruption and wrongdoing. One concerns the so-called “Zondo commission,” a case in which allegations of bribery involving three Indian magnates — the Atul brothers, Ajay and Rajesh Gupta — are being examined.
In another case, he faces 16 counts of fraud, corruption and organized crime related to the purchase of military equipment from five European companies in 1999, when he was vice president. According to the allegations, he would have pocketed more than four million rand (about R$ 1.4 million at the current price) in bribes paid by the French company Thales.
The former president denies any wrongdoing in all cases and says he is the victim of a political witch hunt aimed at marginalizing his influence within the South African legislature.
Zuma, one of the leaders in the struggle to end apartheid alongside Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), has been South Africa’s most controversial president since the end of the segregation regime in 1994. He was ousted from the presidency in 2018, when he resigned, in an action orchestrated by allies of his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, current leader of South Africa.
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