Former South African President, Jacob Zuma Regains Freedom After Prison Term Ends

Former South African President Jacob Zuma has been set free following the expiry of his prison sentence for contempt of court, a government department said on Friday.

Zuma received a 15-month sentence last year after he ignored instructions to participate in a corruption inquiry.

“It is a day of mixed emotions,” Zuma made this known in a statement on Friday, thanking his supporters for speaking out against what he said was an “unjust and cruel incarceration.”

“I am relieved to be free again to walk around and do whatever I want to do without restrictions.”

He compared his release to the day in 1973 when he walked out of Cape Town’s notorious Robben Island prison, where he had been jailed as an apartheid-era political prisoner with Nelson Mandela.

The 80-year-old was granted parole after being admitted to hospital for an undisclosed condition.

A court later ordered him back to jail, but he managed to remain out as appeal proceedings dragged on.

“All administrative processes have now been conducted and the sentence expiry date marks the end of him serving his sentence,” the Department of Correctional Services disclosed this in a statement.

Zuma’s jailing last year sparked riots that descended into looting and left more than 350 dead in the worst violence to hit the country since the advent of democracy in South Africa.