However, the latest reports revealed the High Court in Pretoria ordered that Zuma, 79, “be returned to the custody of the Department of Correctional Services” to serve out the remainder of his 15-month sentence.

The jailing of Zuma in July was the catalyst for the worst civil unrest in South Africa since the country’s first non-racial elections in 1994, leaving at least 354 people dead.

Zuma has an opportunity also to appeal the court’s latest ruling.