The former president returned to South Africa, after his extended stay in Russia, the JG Zuma Foundation announced in a statement.
“The JG Zuma Foundation is glad to announce that its patron has recently returned from his medically-related trip to the Russian Federation. The check-up and observations went well,” the statement issued by the Jacob Zuma Foundation on August 2 read.
The foundation went on to say that the former leader "wishes to thank all the progressive South African citizens and organizations who sent him good wishes and prayers during this period."
Now, after tackling personal medical matters, the ex-president will have to attend a private prosecution hearing.
"His Return was also necessitated by the private prosecution matter which will be sitting in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday 4th August 2023," the foundation disclosed.
In October 2022, Zuma decided to launched a private prosecution of Billy Downer, the state's lawyer, and Karyn Maughan, a journalist from the South African media outlet News24, for publicly disclosing information about the urgent surgery that the former president had to undergo.
His claim eventually failed after the defendants requested a review of the case, and the hearing was postponed until August 4 of this year. The judge of the High Court in Pietermaritzburg decided in early June that the claim could not go any further. Maughan asked the court to drop the case, arguing that Zuma did not have a nolle prosequi certificate against her. Such a certificate, according to court rules, is necessary to allow the claimant to privately prosecute
Ex-President's Court Battles
Zuma left South Africa and arrived in Russia for treatment a few days before the July 13 decision of the Constitutional Court, according to which the former president must return to prison in order to serve out the end of his sentence.
In the summer of 2021, the Constitutional Court found the former president guilty of contempt of court and sentenced him to 15 months behind bars. He began serving his sentence on July 8, 2021. However, by August 6 of that year, he was transferred to one of the hospitals of the Ministry of Defence, where Zuma underwent surgery on August 15.
The Department of Corrections on September 5 ordered the ex-president to be granted parole due to his medical condition. Thus, Zuma was in prison for a little over a month, and for almost a month in the hospital.
The decision of the Constitutional Court regarding Zuma is not the only court case that is in progress in connection with the former president. In the High Court of Pietermaritzburg, which is in the KwaZulu-Natal province, the ex-president is now battling charges of corruption. Staring back in 2005, Zuma had to struggle with numerous court cases that were periodically dropped and resumed.
However, in February 2018, he was forced to resign under threat of further corruption allegations. He was replaced by fellow party member Cyril Ramaphosa as head of state.
In May 2009, Zuma, a veteran politician, was elected President of South Africa, and in the spring of 2014, he was re-elected for a second term as post-apartheid South Africa's fourth president.