Former president Jacob Zuma will be treated like every other bandiet wearing orange overalls, using the public phones available at the facility and eating the food served to all inmates.
He will also be eligible for parole after four months.
Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola briefed the media yesterday outside the Estcourt Correctional Facility, where Zuma was jailed in the early hours of the morning.
Lamola said Zuma was “in very good spirits” and had just finished his breakfast and taken his medication before the media briefing.
He said that this was not a moment of celebration or triumphalism but a moment of restraint and to be human.
“In line with our mandate as correctional services to treat all inmates in terms of the Nelson Mandela rules, which are universal rules for the treatment of inmates,” he said
“Rule 1 is empathy. All inmates shall be treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings.”
The Estcourt Correctional Facility is a Medium B Facility that houses both youth and adult inmates.
As a precaution and in line with Covid-19 measures, Zuma will be placed in isolation for 14 days.
There was drama outside the mang yesterday afternoon when Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association spokesperson Carl Niehaus was arrested.
Niehaus had been addressing a crowd that gathered outside the prison to support Zuma who was held for contempt of court.
During a live TV interview with the SABC, a group of police officers approached Niehaus and whisked him away.
Niehaus was telling the TV crew that the mobilisation for Zuma would continue, right before the police interrupted the interview and asked him to go with them.
It was not clear what Niehaus had been arrested for but according to reporters at the scene, it was for breaking lockdown regulations.
Meanwhile, the Department of Correctional Services has suspended an official and launched an investigation in the wake of pictures of Zuma being processed at the Estcourt prison being leaked.
Singabakho Nxumalo, a spokesperson for DCS, said they were “appalled” by the distribution of the photos on social media which has since gone viral.
He said a criminal case had been opened after a camera SD card, containing images Zuma being admitted at the correctional centre was stolen.
“It has come to the attention of the Department of Correctional Services that images were stolen from a camera of the official who had been assigned to take photos for institutional filing purposes,”Nxumalo said in a statement.
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