JOHANNESBURG

South Africa’s prison authority on Thursday said they will challenge a court’s recent ruling that former President Jacob Zuma was illegally released from jail on medical parole.

“Having carefully studied the judgment, the Department of Correctional Services is convinced that another court may arrive at a different conclusion,” read a statement.

South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeals (SCA) earlier this week ordered 80-year-old Zuma to return to prison to complete his sentence.

It said Zuma was illegally granted parole by Arthur Fraser, then head of the correctional services department, who made the decision against the advice of the Medical Parole Advisory Board.

Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in July 2021 for contempt of court for refusing to testify before a judicial commission investigating corruption during his nearly decade-long presidency.

He was released from the Estcourt Correctional Center on medical parole after just two months to serve out his sentence under house arrest.

A court rescinded the parole in December and ordered him back to prison. The Democratic Alliance (DA), South Africa’s main opposition party, and two other petitioners then approached the SCA for a review of Zuma’s medical parole.

“Mr. Zuma, in law, has not finished serving his sentence. He must return to the Estcourt Correctional Centre to do so,” read the SCA ruling on Monday, which also rejected the department’s claim that Zuma’s sentence ended this October while the appeal was being heard.

“Such pronouncement was premature, given that the determination of the very issue was still pending before this court,” the SCA said.​​​​​​​