Outgoing National Commissioner of Correctional Services Arthur Fraser appeared on SABC 1 on Wednesday, where he sent South Africa into a frenzy over an admission he made regarding the recent medical parole of former president Jacob Zuma.
Arthur Fraser comes to Zuma’s rescue once again
It’s no secret that Fraser is a longtime admirer of Zuma. The two comrades have seen the worst as members of the ANC’s guerrilla intelligence network back when the struggle movement was engaged in a ‘cold war’ with the apartheid regime.
The correctional services head, who once served as leader of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Director-General of the State Security Agency (SSA) under Zuma’s regime, has showed up on several occasions to ‘bail’ the former president out.
Take, for instance, Zuma’s close brush with conviction in the Arms Deal saga. While the matter is still ongoing in court with trial delayed due to the former president’s alleged illness, Fraser’s apparent involvement in getting Zuma off the hook was linked to the infamous ‘spy tapes’.
Illegally obtained audio recordings where Scorpions head Leonard McCarthy and former National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka were heard plotting against the reendictment of Zuma were crucial in pivoting the criminal charges away from the 79-year-old, granting him a clear path to the Union Buildings, where he would spend two widely controversial terms that have become the subject of a two-year-long State Capture Inquiry.
The person credited with pulling off this massive save for Zuma was none other than his Hand, Fraser.
Fraser makes damning admission about Zuma parole
When the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) revealed, in a statement published on Sunday 5 September 2021, that the former president was granted medical parole due to his alleged deteriorating health, eyebrows were raised by skeptics.
DA leader John Steenhuisen made it clear that the official opposition would file an application to subpoena the parole board’s meeting minutes to assess on what grounds the medical parole was approved.
However, there would be no need for this bureaucratic process that would’ve taken eons since, Fraser, in an interview with The Watchdog on the SABC, he admitted that Zuma’s parole was dismissed by the board, and that, he made the call.
“He came to our facility, we have a responsibility to provide security and care. And as in all instances, when we admit a person into our facility, we make sure we do a full assessment, including a health assessment,” he said.
Fraser added that Zuma, in early August, was transferred to a tertiary medical institution where he received further medical care. Realising that the former president was in no state to be held in a jail cell, an attempt was made by medical staff to get him released on medical parole.
This application, Fraser admitted, was dismissed on the basis of findings made by a medical examiner appointed by the corrections department.
“I had then, the head of the centre who has the authority to decide, then reviewed the information available and then indicated that the conditions, based on all the reports that we have require us to release the former president,” he said.
Fraser’s admission introduces a new spanner in Zuma’s legal woes. The Department of Correctional Services has yet to issue a statement following the national commissioner’s interview.
Fraser is currently on the last few weeks of his contract with the department and it’s rumoured that he will not be offered another term.
This is a developing story.