South Africa

MEDICAL TREATMENT

Cyril Ramaphosa was informed about prison boss Arthur Fraser’s decision to grant parole to Jacob Zuma

Cyril Ramaphosa was informed about prison boss Arthur Fraser’s decision to grant parole to Jacob Zuma
Former SSA DG Arthur Fraser. (Photo: Gallo Images / Netwerk24 / Jaco Marais) | Former president Jacob Zuma. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla) | Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola. (Photo: Gallo Images/Darren Stewart) | President Cyril Ramaphosa. (Photo: EPA-EFE/YESHIEL PANCHIA)

The DA raises questions about whether an independent medical parole board sanctioned the granting of medical parole for the former president, who has served less than two months of a 15-month custodial sentence.

National Commissioner of Correctional Services Arthur Fraser reported that he had cleared former president Jacob Zuma for medical parole to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola, who in turn informed President Cyril Ramaphosa.

“Naturally, he would be informed,” said  a senior government source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

*Later on Monday, Ramaphosa’s office confirmed to Daily Maverick that he. had been informed of the decision.

Fraser is appointed by Ramaphosa and reports to him via Lamola. Both men have kept Ramaphosa abreast of Zuma’s medical status after being hospitalised on 15 August while serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court.

Zuma was sentenced to a 15-month term by the Constitutional Court on June 29 for contempt of court without the option of an appeal.  That judgment was subject to a rescission application, and the outcome is still being awaited after 56 days — his release on parole makes the decision moot but for the legal record. 

Zuma is still in hospital but will be released into the care of his doctors and family. He has served less than two months after being imprisoned on 7 July.  

Fraser approved medical parole for Zuma on 5 September — the Correctional Services National Commissioner can make medical parole decisions for inmates sentenced to 24 months or less in prison. “Medical parole eligibility for Mr Zuma is impelled by a medical report received by the Department of Correctional Services. The grounds for parole were extended to consideration of medical conditions which limited daily activity or the ability to undertake self-care,” said the Correctional Services department in a statement.

The ANC welcomed Zuma’s release. “We welcome the space the former president has been granted to reunite with his family and recover,” said ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe. But DA leader John Steenhuisen is contesting Fraser’s decision and wants Parliament to summons the prisons boss to explain himself. “I will also request that the Justice and Correctional Services Committee summon Arthur Fraser to explain to Parliament his decision to grant this medical parole,” said Steenhuisen in a statement. 

The party will submit an access to information request to Correctional Services for the records of the Parole Board decision to grant medical parole. The Daily Maverick has been told that the Medical Parole Advisory Committee, through which all medical parole applications must be processed, was overridden by Fraser. 

But the Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo would not answer any questions about this nor provide the current medical parole committee membership list to the media.  

How is medical parole granted?

Before an amendment to the Correctional Services Act in 2012, medical parole was only granted if a prisoner was terminally ill, but after the amendment, the grounds for medical parole were liberalised, George Aloysius Pillay said in a 2019 Masters thesis on medical parole for The University of the Western Cape. “In terms of the amendment, the application for release on medical parole may be brought by a medical practitioner, or the inmate himself, or a person acting on behalf of the inmate,” he writes. 

“The written medical report must include, inter alia, a diagnosis and a prognosis of the terminal illness or physical incapacity of the inmate; an indication as to whether the physical incapacity is of such a nature and extent that it limits the inmate’s daily activity and ability to take care of himself, and advance reasons as to why medical parole should be considered.

“A Medical Advisory Parole Board shall provide an independent medical report in addition,” writes Pillay.

The case of Zuma’s medical parole now rests on this independent medical report which the DA has requested access to. In the statement announcing his release, the Correctional Services Department does not reference receipt of a report by the Medical Advisory Parole Board but suggests they decided on a report by the former president’s own doctors. 

It says: “Medical parole eligibility for Mr Zuma is impelled by a medical report received by the Department of Correctional Services (likely from Zuma’s own medical team; he has refused to be examined by independent doctors). Apart from being terminally ill and physically incapacitated, inmates suffering from an illness that severely the person’s can also consider limits their daily activity or self-care for medical parole.”  

Zuma is due back in court on September 9 to argue his special plea that the arms deal linked corruption case against him be thrown out because of bias against him by the National Prosecuting Authority prosecutor Billy Downer. 

News24 reported that the former president refused to be examined by NPA doctors after his illness delayed an earlier court appearance because the former president was ill.   DM

*This article was updated at 4.20pm to include confirmation from the presidency.

Gallery

Comments - Please in order to comment.

  • L H says:

    Making an absolute mockery of our justice system and sending a clear message that certain connected politicians are above consequence. It doesn’t bode well for our future.

  • Russ H says:

    The pigs are still at the trough ! Freed by his mate at Department of Correctional Services !=
    Flipping mockery of the courts !

    • Hiram C Potts says:

      I’m sure that this decision goes higher than his mate at Correctional Services. It most probably goes all the way to the NEC who issue instructions to the sock puppet president.

      It’s also becoming obvious that this was all planned ahead of time, before Zuma went to jail.
      I’m surprised that it even took so long for this charade to play out…….

  • Peter Dexter says:

    Arthur Frazer was Jacob Zuma’s appointed spy boss so implicated in the Zondo Commission that he should not be employed anywhere in the state, let alone granting medical parole. Absolute banana republic

    • Nick Griffon says:

      And Cyril Ramaphosa put him there. Never forget that.
      Cyril Ramaphosa is just as big a criminal and part of the problem as Jacob Zuma.
      He is just more sly and slippery. The sooner people see that, the better.

      • Simon D says:

        Yep, Cyril is genuinely happy to look clueless, powerless and spineless to keep the wheels turning. Blows my mind.

        Imagine if he just became a man with a backbone and some anger for 24hrs. Imagine.

        • Jacques Wessels says:

          I agree but you miss the point they were elected & again & again, so take responsibility start working to get a new system in place. One vote at a time this crying to the converted is of absolute no consequence. One vote at a time start‼️

      • Andrew Blaine says:

        The cadre deployment committee did, they truly command the chequer board of deployment not the President?

  • Nick Griffon says:

    That these criminals were able to once again make a complete bloody mockery of the justice system in SA sits squarely on the lap of the lame duck Cyril Ramaphosa.
    His inability (or unwillingness) to fire an obvious criminal Arthur Frazer from the Zuma camp and put him in a position to make this decision shows that Cyril Ramaphosa is either just paying lip service or cannot see the wood for the trees on a good day.
    I am absolutely disgusted.
    And on that note, when is Judge Koen going to grow a pair?

    • Paddy Ross says:

      The respect I had for Cyril Ramaphosa has diminished significantly with him apparently supporting this chicanery.

    • Jeremy Doveton-Helps says:

      My thoughts exactly: how much more evidence did the President need of Fraser’s absolute moral bankruptcy and pathologically self-serving approach to political ‘service’?

  • Dennis Bailey says:

    And why so suddenly?

    • Lesley Young says:

      Probably because the army realised what he was up to, not a million miles from a Coup, and decided to distance themselves from their earlier report that an ‘occurrence ‘ last December required an operation, plus several more over a period of 6 months. Apologies Private Eye.

  • Charles Young says:

    Rather telling that the spokesperson would not answer the question of whether or not Arthur Fraser overruled the Medical Parole Advisory Committee.

  • Sandra Goldberg says:

    Here we go again- it is all so sickening and predictable- it seems that everybody in authority is captured! And Cyril Ramaphosa bears a large part of the blame for this fiasco and justice deficit, by retaining Arthur Fraser in an important position.

  • Heinrich Holt says:

    Maybe JZ is terminally ill. At 79 most people by definition are….

  • Caroline de Braganza says:

    I’m sick and I don’t need a doctored note to diagnose why. What a lame duck our president is.

  • virginia crawford says:

    Is anyone surprised? Remember Chippy Schaik…

  • Hermann Funk says:

    Hurray, we all can now commit crimes and being released after sentencing since all of us are terminally ill and have to die one day.

  • Lorinda Winter says:

    The ANC is corrupt to the core and will never change. One set of rules for the ordinary South Africans and another for the arrogant above-the-law politicians and their buddies and guess what they will be voted back in again!

  • Gerrie Pretorius Pretorius says:

    There are many other real terminally ill prisoners who have applied for medical parole, but are not anc deployees. As LH states above – makes a total mockery of the judiciary in its entirety.

  • Leslie Stelfox says:

    Fraser should be in prison! And what exactly is Zuma suffering from?

  • Rob Glenister says:

    Why is none of this surprising? Oh, it’s the usual dirty rascals playing their usual games.

  • JOHN TOWNSEND says:

    So the BEE BILLIONAIRE new all about this charade . He’s obviously playng the “long game”.
    Incidentally will Zuma’s passport be impounded.i.e. or will he suddenly start popping up in Dubai, Moscow etc ?

  • Amanda Landman says:

    Are these guys family? Something about the features seems very similar…

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