Zondo comes out of retirement to talks about Zuma

Clebrity judge and former Chief Justice who failed JSC interviews Raymond Zondo has publicly questioned the legality and integrity of former President Jacob Zuma's release from prison on medical parole, saying the Judiciary sent a strong message of accountability when it jailed him in 2021.

Zondo was delivering the keynote address on Tuesday during the 15th Commonwealth Regional Conference for Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa, currently underway in Cape Town. The four-day event brings together regional leaders in the fight against corruption.

Zuma was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment in July 2021 after defying a Constitutional Court order to appear before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into state capture, which Zondo himself chaired from 2018 to 2022. However, Zuma served only two months before being controversially released in September 2021 on medical parole by former Correctional Services Commissioner Arthur Fraser.

"It is the Judiciary that sent out a very good message that, whether you are president or a former president, if you have done wrong, we will send you to jail," Zondo said.

"It is the Judiciary that made sure that when some irregularities were done to release a former president from prison, it declared that release unlawful."

Zondo criticised the narrative offered by the executive that Zuma's early release was part of a broader prisoner remission process.

"The executive wanted us to believe that coincidentally, when he came back, there was this plan that certain prisoners should be released, and he just fitted into that plan," said Zondo. "Some of us did not believe that."

His remarks come in reference to the July 2023 Constitutional Court ruling, which dismissed an appeal by the Department of Correctional Services against a Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) judgment that found Zuma's medical parole unlawful.

In November 2022, the SCA upheld the Pretoria High Court's earlier ruling that Fraser had improperly granted parole, ordering that Zuma return to prison. He did so briefly in August 2023, reporting to the Estcourt Correctional Centre, only to be released two hours later under a special remission programme.

Correctional Services Commissioner Makgothi Samuel Thobakgale claimed the remission was part of a broader national strategy to reduce prison overcrowding. Then-Minister Ronald Lamola insisted it was not tailored for Zuma.

"It is not a specific decision about former president Jacob Zuma. It is about all the offenders across the country. Zuma will benefit from this," Lamola said at the time, confirming that 9,488 inmates were to be released under the same programme.

During his address, Zondo also commended the judiciary for its landmark ruling on the Nkandla scandal, where public funds were misused to upgrade Zuma's private homestead in KwaZulu-Natal.

"The Judiciary issued the Nkandla judgment that, in the view of many, turned the tide," said Zondo.

Zuma eventually paid back R7.8 million, years after the Public Protector's 2014 report revealed massive inflation in project costs — from R60 million to R246 million — to cover non-security upgrades such as a swimming pool, cattle kraal, chicken run, amphitheatre, and visitors' centre.

Zondo's statements have reignited debate around executive overreach, judicial independence, and the credibility of South Africa's correctional processes, particularly when dealing with politically influential figures.

The conference continues this week, focusing on strengthening institutional mechanisms to tackle corruption and enhance accountability across the Commonwealth's African members.