South Africa’s government has announced that former President Jacob Zuma has been released from prison after serving his sentence.
In a statement issued on Friday, the government stated that he had been released from their system after serving only a portion of his sentence.
Zuma expressed mixed emotions about his release, comparing it to the day he walked out of Robben Island prison in 1973, after being imprisoned as an apartheid-era political prisoner alongside Nelson Mandela.
While thanking his supporters for speaking out against what he termed an “unjust and cruel incarceration”, the 80 year old said, “I am relieved to be free again, to walk around and do whatever I want to do without restrictions.”
Zuma was jailed for 15 months in July last year for his refusal to appear before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into allegations of State Capture while he was president from 2009-2018.
He was granted medical parole for an undisclosed illness two months later, in September 2021.
In December 2021, the High Court in Pretoria ordered Zuma’s return to prison, ruling that he was unlawfully granted medical parole after opposition parties questioned his release.
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