Former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo Still Critical of Jacob Zuma’s Special Remission

SIHLE MAVUSO|May 7, 2025

***CRITICAL: Former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo is still critical of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to grant former President Jacob Zuma a special remission. Photo: RSA Judiciary***

Former Chief Justice of South Africa, Raymond Zondo, is still critical of the Ramaphosa administration’s decision to grant former president Jacob Zuma a special remission that ensured he did not return to finish his 15-month contempt of court sentence.

Zondo says a lot was wrong with the August 2023 decision.

He addressed the matter on Tuesday (6 May 2025) while speaking in Cape Town during a Commonwealth conference on anti-corruption, which was attended by organisations such as the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and other crime and corruption-fighting agencies in the country.

The remission was granted to Zuma after courts set aside the September 2021 decision by former Correctional Services boss Arthur Fraser to free Zuma on medical parole. When Zuma was supposed to return to serve his sentence, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a special remission for certain prisoners, including Zuma.

This allowed Zuma to check in and out of Estcourt Prison, and he was later released to finish his sentence at home.

Zondo is still not convinced that the decision was justified, implying that it was a setback for the rule of law.

“I have already mentioned the SIU (for its role in fighting corruption), but I think I have to mention the judiciary because it is the judiciary that issued the Inkandla judgment, that in the view of many that turned the tide, it is the judiciary that sent a very good message that whether you are president or former president, if you have done wrong, we will send you to jail.” Zondo stated.

He added that the judiciary stood firm when the constitution was bent to free Zuma.

“It is the judiciary that made sure that when some irregularities were done to release former president (Zuma) from prison, it is the judiciary which declared that release was unlawful. But it was the executive which wanted us to believe that coincidentally, when he came back (to finish his sentence) there was this plan that certain prisoners should be released and he just fitted into that plan, some of us did not believe that,” Zondo concluded.