Zuma’s remission is a “smokescreen to help a powerful politician escape justice”: AfriForum

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Civil rights organisation AfriForum has called the decision by Correctional Services to send former President Jacob Zuma home as a beneficiary of a special remission programme for non-violent offenders, an insult to justice and the rule of law.

AfriForum was one of the applicants in the case that asked for an urgent review of Zuma’s medical parole.

The case led to the Constitutional Court as well as the Supreme Court of Appeal finding that Zuma’s release was unlawful.

Ernst van Zyl is a Campaign Officer for Strategy and Content at AfriForum.

“AfriForum considers the Department of Correctional Service decision to grant Jacob Zuma this special remission of his sentence an insult to justice and rule of law. It clearly proves one thing, that there’s no more privilege position or protected position in South Africa, than being an ANC cadre that just seems to be the facts of the day. So, when it comes to the story, the narrative that Zuma was one of the thousands of inmates that were granted special remission of sentences in an effort to alleviate overcrowding in prison, this appears to be nothing more than a smokescreen to help a powerful politician escape justice.”