The ex-president went back to jail but he was home in time for breakfast
17 August 2023 - 05:00
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Jacob Zuma often has a smile ready when cameras focus on him. With all his legal woes it can seem a pretence, but early last Friday he had a real reason to grin. Once again he’d managed to wangle a get-out-of-jail-free card, all the while wrapping his spineless successor around his little finger. Zuma must also have set a world record for the shortest jail stint, in and out of Estcourt prison in just over an hour and back home in time for his cornflakes.
Picture: GCIS
A bad week for Cyril Ramaphosa
Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s inveterate invertebrate president, came up with an ingenious piece of jailhouse gerrymandering in releasing his predecessor. But he didn’t have the courage to announce the news himself, leaving it to justice minister Ronald Lamola to be laughed at. The expediency of the breakfast breakout was not lost. The ANC is being assailed on all sides and, with an election looming, it knows its ex-jailbird former president still carries a lot of clout in KwaZulu-Natal, where the party’s support is waning.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
A good week for Jacob Zuma
The ex-president went back to jail but he was home in time for breakfast
A good week for Jacob Zuma
Jacob Zuma often has a smile ready when cameras focus on him. With all his legal woes it can seem a pretence, but early last Friday he had a real reason to grin. Once again he’d managed to wangle a get-out-of-jail-free card, all the while wrapping his spineless successor around his little finger. Zuma must also have set a world record for the shortest jail stint, in and out of Estcourt prison in just over an hour and back home in time for his cornflakes.
A bad week for Cyril Ramaphosa
Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s inveterate invertebrate president, came up with an ingenious piece of jailhouse gerrymandering in releasing his predecessor. But he didn’t have the courage to announce the news himself, leaving it to justice minister Ronald Lamola to be laughed at. The expediency of the breakfast breakout was not lost. The ANC is being assailed on all sides and, with an election looming, it knows its ex-jailbird former president still carries a lot of clout in KwaZulu-Natal, where the party’s support is waning.
TOM EATON: Springing Zuma was Ramaphosa’s least bad option
EXPLAINER: Why Zuma did and did not go back to prison
EXPLAINER: Remission of sentence and who qualifies
ALEXANDER PARKER: Zuma, Hill-Lewis and the torture of doing the right thing
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