Correctional services commissioner Arthur Fraser's decision to grant medical parole to Jacob Zuma was unlawful, the DA argued in an application before the high court on Friday.
Steenhuisen said, alternatively, the commissioner's decision was materially influenced by an error of law in believing that he was entitled to grant medical parole when the board had concluded that Zuma was not ill enough to warrant it.
Second, for Fraser – who is not a medical expert – to ignore the recommendation of the board, which is made up exclusively of medical experts, is irrational, unreasonable and constitutes a failure to take relevant circumstances into account. “It cannot be ignored that we appear to have been here before. In 2005, Schabir Shaik was convicted and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment for corruption,” he said, in reference to Zuma's former financial adviser.
In 2009, after having been in prison for less than two years, Shaik was released from prison on “medical parole”. “Since then he has regularly been seen golfing, allegedly throttled and slapped a journalist and was accused of punching and slapping a man at a mosque during an argument over parking,” Steenhuisen said.
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