South Africa's former president Jacob Zuma, who returned to prison on Friday after being granted medical parole, was almost immediately released from the penitentiary on a pardon.
The turnaround was prompted by a special remission of the prison sentence program announced by the country's Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola, which aims to reduce prison occupancy.
According to Lamola, the step was endorsed by the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday.
The pardon published on Friday implies that 9,488 inmates, including Zuma, are due to be released from prison.
In addition, under the remission, probationers, parolees and those sentenced to imprisonment are granted a special 12-month deferment of serving their terms, except for those sentenced to imprisonment for murder, attempted murder, sexual offenses, child abuse, crimes against the safety of the state, convicts sentenced to life, violations under the Domestic Violence Act, gender-based violence, armed robbery, tampering, destroying or damaging essential infrastructure.
The measure was taken to combat prison overcrowding in South Africa, where 143,223 people serve sentences for 2021-2022, according to the Department of Correctional Service's annual report.
Moreover, Lamola said that the decision to declare remission was also influenced by the fire at the correctional center in Machado in Mpumalanga province, which exacerbated the problem of prison occupancy.
The release from prison will take 12 weeks, while Zuma is already out of a detention facility in the eastern town of Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal province.
Former South African President Jacob Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison in June 2021 after refusing to testify before a commission investigating financial corruption and nepotism during his presidency.
He began serving his sentence in July 2021, but was released on parole two months later on medical grounds.
Last November, South Africa's Court of Appeal found that the release had been granted illegally and ordered Zuma to return to the correctional center in KwaZulu-Natal province.
Zuma served as head of the Republic of South Africa from 2009 to 2018.