POLL | What do you think of Arthur Fraser overruling board on Zuma's medical parole?

Praise and accusations have been thrown Arthur Fraser's way after he revealed on Wednesday that he took the decision to place Jacob Zuma on medical parole. 

The correctional services commissioner told SABC journalist Vuyo Mvoko that he released Zuma despite the parole board advising that the former president not be given medical parole as he was in a stable condition. 

“I then, as the head of the centre who has the authority to decide, reviewed the information available and then indicated that the conditions, based on all the reports that we have, required us to release the former president. I then rescinded those validations,” he said.

Asked whether he regarded himself as a “Zuma person” who would do any favours for the former president, Fraser said this was not the case.

“I know the noise, the perception was created that I was a Jacob Zuma person. The only thing I know is that I was appointed by him into the position of director-general at SSA. In actual fact, I was the first public servant to be purged under Jacob Zuma's administration,” he claimed

Fraser insisted that all legal and necessary steps were followed before deciding on Zuma's release.

Zuma was receiving medical care from a military hospital outside the Estcourt correctional services facility where he was serving a 15-month sentence. The Constitutional Court found him in contempt of court after he refused to testify at the state capture commission.

The department of correctional services confirmed on Sunday that Zuma was granted medical parole.

“Medical parole placement for Mr Zuma means that he will complete the remainder of the sentence in the system of community corrections, whereby he must comply with a specific set of conditions and will be subjected to supervision until his sentence expires.”

The One SA Movement (OSA) said it would seek more transparency from the department of correctional services on how it reached its decision to grant Zuma parole. 

OSA said it will submit a formal application, in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, requesting the full record that led to the department’s decision.