CORRECTIONAL services commissioner Arthur Fraser confirmed during an SABC interview with anchor Vuyo Mvoko that the medical parole advisory board did not recommend former President Jacob Zuma’s release – but that he overruled it and took a decision to free him.
In an interview with the SABC on Wednesday night, Fraser says doctors did observation on Jacob Zuma and then made recommendations to the advisory board, which didn’t approve medical parole because they indicated he was in a stable condition.
He said using his original powers, he reviewed and rescinded the decision of the Parole Board and ultimately took the decision for Zuma to be released.
“I think that is at the beginning of August where they applied and we were directed to the relevant structures, within our structure we got health care and then we got the medical advisory parole, so we directed that to them,” said Fraser.
“So they allocated a doctor to go and do an observation as they do in all instances, they have done an observation and based on their engagement and assessment … on the patient, recommendations were made to the medical parole advisory board and those were made… the board did not approve for medical parole because they indicated that he was in a stable condition.”
“What I need to indicate is that when the advisory board provided those recommendations I had then, as the head of the centre, who has the authority to decide, then reviewed the information available and then indicated that the conditions, based on the reports that we have require us to release him (Zuma).”
He also denied allegations he was a pro-Zuma deployee.
“I was the first public servant under the President Jacob Zuma administration to be purged. I am not a Zuma person and I did him no favours. I simply complied with the law. As a matter of fact it is President Cyril Ramaphosa who threw me under the bus”, said Fraser.
Meanwhile, representatives of the former president have confirmed that the former president is too ill to attend his trial on Thursday due to his ‘ongoing hospitalisation’.
The Jacob Zuma Foundation said due to his ill-health and continuing hospitalisation, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and his legal team have agreed that he will not attend the postponement proceedings which will be heard on the virtual platform at 10h00 on 9 Sept 2021.
Arguments about the recusal of Advocate Billy Downer will be heard, before the case can progress.
Zuma claims the prosecution lawyer is ‘biased against him’.
The former president has served two months of a 15-month sentence handed down to him at the end of June.
- Inside Politics
