‘Kill yourself’
JOHANNEBURG - Former President Jacob Zuma was released from the Correctional Services system on expiry of his contempt of court sentence yesterday.
Zuma was sentenced last year to 15 months imprisonment by the Constitutional Court after he breached its order that he should honour a summons to appear at the State Capture Inquiry.
He was admitted to the Estcourt Correctional Centre in KwaZulu-Natal in July 2021. After serving less than two months, he was granted medical parole by Arthur Fraser, former National Commissioner of Correctional Services.
Sentence
The department said: “Medical parole placement meant for Mr Zuma was to serve the remainder of his sentence under Kranskop Community Corrections.”
It said Zuma had complied with the conditions as set out during his placement.
“All administrative processes have been concluded and the sentence expiry date (October 7 2022 yesterday) marks the end of him serving his sentence under
Former President Jacob Zuma was released yesterday.
community corrections.”
His brief prison stint sparked the rioting and looting in KwaZulu-Natal that spread to parts of Gauteng over 10 days last year.
Zuma’s legal battles are ongoing as he fights prosecution on charges of racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud relating to the arms deal.
Eight people died after flash floods hit a river in India’s eastern State of West Bengal on Wednesday in the latest incident of heavy seasonal rains causing havoc in South Asia. Around 70 people were rescued by disaster relief teams, while 13 were undergoing treatment at a regional hospital, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
MOSCOW - A top ally of President Vladimir Putin made an extraordinary public attack on Russia’s defense minister, suggesting the minister should kill himself over Russia’s recent military losses. Kirill Stremousov, a pro-Russia Ukrainian politician who was installed as Putin’s puppet leader in the occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson, took aim at ‘generals and ministers’ in a video message on Thursday, Reuters reported.
Blamed
He singled out Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, who he blamed for Ukraine’s recent advances in the northeast of the region. “Indeed, many say: If they were a defence minister who had authorised such a state of affairs, they could have, as officers, shot themselves,” he said, per Reuters’ translation.
Russian forces have, in the last days, pulled back into defensive positions in central Kherson region, while Ukrainian forces have claimed the capture of a number of settlements in the region’s northeast, according to Ukraine and recent assessments from the Institute for the Study of War think tank.