WATCH | Former president Jacob Zuma arrives at prison, released 90 minutes later

One and a half hours. That's how long former president Jacob Zuma was inside the Estcourt prison early on Friday morning.

The department of correctional services confirmed Zuma underwent a “remission process” and was released.

Video footage from outside the prison in KwaZulu-Natal shows Zuma's motorcade arriving in the dark early in the morning. They were noticeable by the presidential seal on the side of a vehicle.

An hour and a half later, the same motorcade was seen leaving the prison while a press briefing involving minister of justice Ronald Lamola was taking place regarding Zuma's release.

Lamola announced a special remission process for non-violent offenders has been approved by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Zuma served less than two months of his 15-month sentence handed to him by the Constitutional Court for contempt of court after he failed to obey its order to abide by the lawful summons of the state capture inquiry. His incarceration led to the July 2021 riots, which saw KwaZulu-Natal plunged into chaos by looting and violence that spread to Gauteng, leaving about 354 people dead and causing billions in infrastructure damage.

In September 2021 Zuma was released on medical parole by former correctional services commissioner Arthur Fraser.   

That decision was set aside as unlawful by the courts. However, a Supreme Court of Appeal judgment left it in the commissioner’s hands to decide whether he was empowered by law to consider whether the time Zuma has already spent on medical parole can be considered in determining “the remaining period of his incarceration”.

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