Earlier this month, Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, was granted medical parole after being sentenced imprisoned on contempt charges. His imprisonment sparked a wave of violent demonstrations that degenerated into fatal confrontations and looting.
Zuma has been hospitalised since August 6 at a health facility outside of the prison where he was incarcerated for refusing to testify before a judicial panel investigating corruption during his nine-year tenure as president, which ended in 2018. Zuma was imprisoned for refusing to testify before the panel during his nine-year tenure, which ended in 2018.
Zuma was president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018, and he was once generally hailed as a key role in the country’s liberation movement during his time in office. He spent ten years in prison with anti-apartheid icon and former President Nelson Mandela under the South African apartheid regime.
Zuma is accused of corruption involving three businessmen close to him — brothers Atul, Ajay, and Rajesh Gupta — and allowing them to exert influence over government policy, including the hiring and firing of ministers, in order to align the family’s business interests with those of the country’s other citizens. After Zuma was removed from the president, the Gupta family, despite their denials, departed South Africa.
His release comes after a harrowing fall from grace as a once-celebrated liberation fighter who battled with Nelson Mandela against apartheid and was a prominent figure in the ruling African National Congress.
