South Africa's former president Jacob Zuma, who spent only two months of a 15-month sentence in prison in 2021, was granted a remission approved by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday, avoiding a decision that could have sent him back to jail.
He was released on medical parole after two months, but afound that decision unlawful. The head of South Africa's prisons service was due this week to announce whether he would return to jail. Friday's remission appears to make that decision moot.
South Africa's national commissioner of correctional services, Makgothi Samuel Thobakgale, told reporters that Zuma had appeared for about an hour on Friday morning at the Estcourt correctional facility in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal where he had been held in 2021.Prisons officials will keep in contact with Zuma, as they do with other offenders released under the remission process, the commissioner added.
A spokesman for Zuma's foundation said that Zuma was at home consulting his legal team and that a statement could be issued later.
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