The imprisoned former president that went from not being ill, to hospitalised for a routine check-up, to being placed on medical parole is now going to cost us taxpayers R400,000+ in medical bills.
News24 reports normally, inmates are hospitalised in state hospitals, but Zuma’s privileges as former president bought him a stay in a private hospital and a get-out-of-jail-free card, whether he met the conditions for medical parole or not.
While he remains in hospital, “consulting with his lawyers”, Zuma also bought some time in facing the music in court into the criminal case in which he faces 16 counts of fraud, corruption, money laundering and racketeering. Zuma is alleged to have received an annual kickback of R500,000 paid through his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik in exchange for shielding French arms manufacturer Thales from an investigation into the controversial arms deal.
Meanwhile, opposition groups the DA and Afriforum are taking legal steps to have the medical parole decision reviewed.
And while all this is happening, Zuma Junior is on the campaign trail to be our next president. Let’s just take a moment to (insert here whatever you’re feeling right now).
Here’s a roundup of the world’s top and most interesting headlines:
SA Business
Sasria’s liabilities exceeding its assets in wake of claims from July riots – EWN
Trillian liquidators label Centaur Mining a ‘Gupta puppet’ – Daily Maverick
Enough Covid-19 vaccines to cover global population, industry heavyweights say – Fin24
Global Business
This 17-year-old Korean CEO made $1 million in sales this year. Now he’s onto his next venture – CNBC
20 meat and dairy firms emit more greenhouse gas than Germany, Britain or France – The Guardian
TikTok reportedly overtakes YouTube in US average watch time – The Verge
Markets
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Bitcoin nurses losses in wake of El Salvador’s glitched rollout – Bloomberg
Wall Street is back — just not the way executives had hoped – Bloomberg
Opinion/In-depth
The rise and (slow) fall of John Hlophe, the judge who almost took the judiciary down with him – Daily Maverick
SA’s exorbitant tax burden is grossly out of line with the rest of Africa – Biznews
Young people and women bear the brunt of South Africa’s worrying jobless rate – The Conversation
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