Former president Jacob Zuma returned to prison on Friday morning, but only for a short period.

Department of Correctional Services acting national commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale said during a briefing that a decision was taken that Zuma must return to the Estcourt Correctional Centre in KwaZulu-Natal.

He had been released from the facility in September 2021 on medical parole.

According to Thobakgole, Zuma arrived at the prison at 06:00 on Friday, where he was processed.

Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola later announced that the former statesman had benefitted from a special remission of prison sentences for non-violent offenders, approved by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Lamola said the decision to have a special remission was to address overcrowding in prison, not to let the former president off the hook.

This meant Zuma spent less than two hours in prison before he was released. As a result of the remission, he will not be on the parole system. 

Contempt and medical parole

Zuma's incarceration had its genesis in his defiance of a Constitutional Court order to appear and testify before the State Capture Commission.

The same court sentenced him to 15 months imprisonment.

Zuma was arrested in July 2021 and only served two months of his sentence before the then-national commissioner of correctional services Arthur Fraser granted him medical parole.

Fraser's decision was declared unlawful by the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.

The matter was appealed, but the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld the high court decision, agreeing that Zuma's parole was unlawful and unconstitutional.

This effectively meant that Zuma had not finished serving his sentence. Still, it was left up to Thobakgale to decide whether the former president would return to prison to finish serving his sentence.