South Africa’s jailed former President Jacob Zuma has been granted compassionate leave for one day to attend the funeral of his younger brother, prison authorities said.
Zuma, 79, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt of court last month after snubbing fraud investigators probing his presidency from 2009 until 2018.
He has been jailed at Estcourt prison since handing himself over to authorities in the early hours of July 8. The prison is close to his rural home at Nkandla in the Kwa-Zulu Natal province, where funeral proceedings for Zuma’s brother, Michael, are expected to be held on Thursday.
“As a short-term, low-risk classified inmate, Mr Zuma’s application for compassionate leave was processed and approved,” the Department of Correctional Services said in a statement, adding that while outside the prison, Zuma was not required to wear the offenders’ uniform.
Inmates in South Africa are usually allowed to attend relatives’ funerals – a right denied to the country’s first Black President Nelson Mandela when he was in jail for fighting the apartheid regime.
Zuma’s brother died aged 77 after a long illness, according to local media.
