I agree with Thuli Madonsela.
Nothing more can be gained by sending Jacob Zuma to prison.
Often the voice of reason, our former public protector made the comment after the former Number One reported to prison, was processed and then released.
He is one of more than 9 000 non-violent offenders benefiting from government’s special sentence remission programme.
Yes, I have many questions.
They concern the message being sent around the political pressure around popular leaders who commit crimes, but especially around the timing of the remissions, solely done to alleviate prison overcrowding, which in itself needs a serious and ongoing conversation.
It’s not the best optics for government as it tries to reinforce the independence and impartiality of the judiciary.
Be that as it may, the spectre of incarceration has been lifted and Zuma’s prison time for contempt of court is now considered served.
However, the significance of his short imprisonment cannot be overstated. It is a clear message to both honourable and greedy civil servants, hopefully as a deterrent to the latter.
The humiliation of imprisonment is a heavy social weight for ordinary people to bear.
For a former president with delusions of invincibility, it must be a hard reality check that forces a re-evaluation of everything he believed about himself and his presidency.
Legacy is an important part of what presidents work on towards the end of their terms.
Ideally they want to be remembered for all the good they did.
Being jailed – albeit for a brief two months – is the most undignified memory to be recorded in the history books and is a punishment in and of itself, assuming that is something that matters to Zuma.
The fact that he even saw the inside of a prison cell is an important message to other public servants with their fingers in the public purse – those who took their cue from him, believing that they would get away with wanton corruption and looting.
Just the thought of him in handcuffs and prison overalls was more than enough to satisfy most South Africans.
While many saw it as reaping what he sowed during a decade of gluttonous self-enrichment disguised as a crippling ineptitude, it still pains me to have witnessed one of our democratically elected leaders being jailed like a common criminal.
It’s not something to celebrate, but should instead hurt us all as patriotic citizens.
It should definitely spur us all on to educate ourselves and protect the truth (especially around election times) to ensure it’s never repeated.