Â鶹´«Ã½

Skip to main content

Ex-South African leader Zuma can appeal return to jail

Former South African president Jacob Zuma sits in the High Court in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, Oct. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File) Former South African president Jacob Zuma sits in the High Court in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, Oct. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)
Share
JOHANNESBURG -

Former South African president Jacob Zuma will be allowed to appeal a court ruling that ordered him back to jail to serve the remainder of his sentence, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Zuma, 80, had been released on medical parole earlier this year, but the Gauteng High Court in the capital, Pretoria, ruled last week that his parole had been illegal. On Tuesday, Judge Elias Matojane said the ex-president can now appeal that finding.

"Because of his illness and advanced age, he needs compassion, empathy and humanness," Matojane said of Zuma in delivering the judgment.

Zuma was convicted and sentenced for defying a court order ordering that he appear before a government-backed commission probing allegations of corruption during his tenure as president from 2009 to 2018.

Zuma's release on medical parole had been granted by former correctional services commissioner Arthur Fraser against the recommendation of the parole board.

He served nearly two months of his 15-month sentence, but this was mainly in the hospital wing of the Estcourt Correctional Centre and a hospital in Pretoria, where he underwent surgery in August this year.

Zuma's lawyer, Dali Mpofu, had argued that returning him to jail "is equivalent to a death sentence."

"You are saying he must return to that place where the medical doctors and prison authorities say they cannot cater for him," Mpofu said. "Then what else is going to happen except that he must die there."

Zuma's imprisonment in July sparked protests by supporters who demanded his immediate pardon and release from jail.

The protests quickly descended into chaotic violence in which trucks were burned, shops and warehouses looted and burned. More than 300 people died in the country's worst violence since the end of apartheid in 1994.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

WATCH LIVE

WATCH LIVE Helene strengthens to a Category 4 hurricane as it nears Florida's Gulf Coast

Helene strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane hours ahead of its expected landfall on Florida's northwest coast Thursday night, and forecasters warned that the enormous storm could create a 'nightmare' surge in coastal areas and bring dangerous winds and rain across much of the southeastern U.S.

Canadian singer K'naan has been charged with sexual assault after being arrested by police in Quebec City.

A pizza chain in Edmonton claims to have the world's largest deliverable pizza.

Scammers are increasingly using emails to extort money from victims by threatening to reveal compromising photos, videos and personal information to their friends and family members, according to a new warning from Mounties in Metro Vancouver.

An Air Canada flight headed to Toronto from Frankfurt diverted to Edinburgh due to an emergency Thursday, the airline says.

An NDP MP has introduced a bill that would criminalize residential school denialism, saying it would help stop harm caused toward survivors, their families and communities.

Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard's defence lawyer continued her cross-examination of the complainant in his sexual assault trial in a northeastern Ontario court today, where he has pleaded not guilty.

Local Spotlight

A pizza chain in Edmonton claims to have the world's largest deliverable pizza.

Sarah McLachlan is returning to her hometown of Halifax in November.

Wayne MacKay is still playing basketball twice at Mount Allison University at 87 years old.

A man from a small rural Alberta town is making music that makes people laugh.

An Indigenous artist has a buyer-beware warning ahead of Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Police are looking to the public for help after thieves broke into a Lethbridge ice creamery, stealing from the store.

An ordinary day on the job delivering mail in East Elmwood quickly turned dramatic for Canada Post letter carrier Jared Plourde. A woman on his route was calling out in distress.

Fire has destroyed a barn and 17,000 plants at a family-owned business in Lower Coverdale, N.B.

Before influencers on social media, Canada’s Jeanne Beker was bringing the world of high fashion down to earth and as Calgary’s Glenbow Museum gets a major make-over, it will include a new exhibition showcasing the pop culture icon.