Zuma praises Fraser for saving his life, tells ConCourt he 'faced death itself in prison'

Jacob Zuma is adamant that former prisons boss Arthur Fraser saved his life by granting him medical parole – but if Fraser had been wrong to do so, the former president wants the Constitutional Court to rule he shouldn’t go back to jail.

“Faced with a possibility that I faced death itself while in prison, it could never be unreasonable or irrational for the commissioner to have granted me medical parole,” Zuma states in papers filed at the apex court.

“Bearing in mind that my incarceration was in the middle of a deadly pandemic in which people in my age and medical condition faced a certain death, the commissioner's decision, in our constitutional context, should have been applauded as exemplary leadership that is required under our Constitution.”