Johannesburg: Former South African president Jacob Zuma has been hospitalised for a ‘routine check-up’ near a correctional centre where he is currently serving a 15-month jail sentence for contempt of court, the government announced Friday.
The Department of Correctional Services confirmed that the 79-year-old Zuma was admitted to a hospital near the Estcourt Correctional Centre.
It said in a statement that a “routine observation” prompted that Zuma be taken “for in-hospitalisation”.
The Jacob Zuma Foundation also said in a tweet that the former president was in the hospital for “his annual medical routine check-up”, adding that there was “no need to be alarmed,…Yet.”
Zuma is due to appear in court on Tuesday for a separate corruption trial for allegedly taking kickbacks from French company Thales in a USD 2 billion arms deal nearly two decades ago.
The trial has been repeatedly delayed as Zuma challenged it through the different courts and changed lawyers several times over more than a decade.
The trial, which was supposed to restart a fortnight ago, was again delayed after Zuma’s lawyers challenged a decision by the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg to hold virtual hearings from prison. They argued that this would unfairly prejudice Zuma. The court has now ruled that Zuma can appear in person.
Zuma has pleaded not guilty to numerous charges, including corruption, fraud and money laundering.
Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo told the Daily Maverick that Zuma’s scheduled court appearance on Tuesday, “all depends on what the doctors say.”
“If the doctors discharge him before then and say he’s fit to go there, he will attend. The medical experts will provide guidance in terms of Tuesday,” he said.
Zuma was allowed out of prison for a day on July 22 on compassionate grounds to attend the funeral of his younger brother Michael.
The former president handed himself over after the apex Constitutional court found him to be in contempt of court for repeatedly refusing to return to the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, where several witnesses have given details of his alleged role in a number of issues relating to the looting of state departments and parastatal organisations.
Zuma had alleged that the chairman of the Commission, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, was biased against him.
Protests which started after Zuma’s imprisonment rapidly devolved into a week of mob violence, looting and arson across KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces that left over 330 people dead and billions of rands in damage to shopping centres, warehouses and infrastructure.
President Cyril Ramaphosa called in the army to assist the embattled police on the ground to quell the violence which he said was “a failed insurrection.”
PTI