The Democratic Alliance has brought an urgent court application against former president Jacob Zuma’s release on medical parole on the grounds that it was ‘patently unlawful’ in going against the recommendation of the Medical Parole Advisory Board, and was based on an ‘ulterior purpose’.
The party lodged its urgent application in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Friday to review and set aside the decision.
According to News24, the DA said National Commissioner of Correctional Services Arthur Fraser’s approval of Zuma’s medical parole was ‘patently unlawful’ in that it contradicted the advice of the medical parole board, and was made for an ‘ulterior purpose’, as Zuma doesn’t seem to be gravely ill.
After Zuma’s medical parole was announced on Sunday, Fraser admitted that he had gone against the parole board’s recommendation.
In his founding affidavit, DA leader John Steenhuisen says: ‘The effect of the parole decision is to evade the Constitutional Court’s decision to imprison Mr Zuma. The court imprisoned him for egregious contempt of court – “a marked disregard for the authority of the [Constitutional Court]”. Mr Zuma’s contempt was so serious that it constituted a near-existential threat to the authority of the judicial system.
‘The parole decision harms the courts in exactly the same way that Mr Zuma’s contempt of court did. It again makes a mockery of the judicial process. It sends the message to every South African that, as long as you are politically connected, you need not fear sanction for breaking the law. If you are sent to prison for your crimes, you will be let out well before the end of your sentence on “medical parole”.’