Conflicting answers show there are agendas at play, and undermine confidence in SA's institutional authorities.
Two weeks after prisons boss Arthur Fraser’s controversial decision to grant former president Jacob Zuma medicalparole on his 15-month contempt sentence, it yesterday emerged that state-appointed doctors have cleared the former president to stand trial – raising further questions about just how sick he is.
While the two processes are completely independent of one another, legal expert Dr Llewleyn Curlewis yesterday said Fraser’s decision had certainly smelt off ethically because of the shared history between himself and Zuma.Fraser has since admitted that he overruled the medical parole advisory board when he took the decision to grant Zuma parole.
He said given Zuma and Fraser’s history, South Africans were owed a “very clear and unambiguous answer on this particular issue”. Proceedings kicked off with advocate Wim Trengove, for the state, moving to call up several witnesses whom the state had subpoenaed – among them Fraser – to hand over medical records pertaining to Zuma’s “health and fitness to stand trial”.Mpofu insisted these records were, for now at least, irrelevant as Zuma’s fitness to stand trial was not in question and that handing them up would be in breach of his rights to privacy and confidentiality.
“In their view, he is fit to stand trial,” he said. This has now also been confirmed in a new affidavit from Downer.”
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