Of the more than 15 000 inmates released on the special remission, which saw former president Jacob Zuma go free after spending hardly two hours in prison in August, 97 have reoffended since their release.

Answering questions in the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday, Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola vehemently denied that the special remission was a ploy to see Zuma avoiding jail time.

Zuma was jailed for 15 months in July 2021 for contempt of the Constitutional Court after he refused to obey an order to appear before the Zondo Commission.

However, hardly two months later, he was released on medical parole after the then-national commissioner of correctional services, Arthur Fraser, overruled a Medical Parole Advisory Board recommendation that the former president did not qualify.

Court proceedings initiated by the Democratic Alliance (DA), AfriForum, and the Helen Suzman Foundation culminated in July this year with the Constitutional Court upholding a Supreme Court of Appeal decision that Fraser unlawfully released Zuma and that he "must return to the Estcourt Correctional Centre" to complete his sentence.

And so, on the morning of 11 August, inmate Zuma presented himself to the Estcourt Correctional Centre.

However, hardly two hours later, he was a free man - again.

It emerged that the day before, President Cyril Ramaphosa had signed a special remission order, which allowed supposed non-violent offenders to be released.

At the time, Lamola would have the country believe the remission order had nothing to do with Zuma's incarceration, and that it was to alleviate overcrowding in prisons.

On Tuesday, Lamola stuck to his guns.

The DA's George Michalakis asked the following question: "How many convicted prisoners were released on the latest remission programme, which is alleged to have been initiated to ensure the immediate release of a certain person?"

Lamola said he "completely rejects" the notion that the special remission was instituted for the "sole purpose of the release of one person" – Zuma.

He said that, as of 16 October, 15 674 inmates were released.

He said the process had a long run-up.

In April, the Auditor-General released an audit that required them to reduce bed space by 1 000.

"It's a known challenge of overcrowding [in prisons] in our country," said Lamola.

Then, on 7 August, there was a fire at the Kutama Sinthumule Correctional Centre in Limpopo, and it then became "obvious" that the department would not have the required bed space, hence the call to Ramaphosa to expedite the special remission.

Michalakis said it was interesting that the minister mentioned Zuma, who wasn't mentioned in the question, and that made him suspicious.

Lamola countered that it was a "known fact" that the DA had accused him and Ramaphosa of implementing the special remission for the benefit of Zuma.

He said thousands of the released inmates had nowhere to go after their release, as they were rejected by their families and communities, leaving them to live on the street with no option but to resort to crime.

"Will you at least take some responsibility for the rising crime statistics?" asked Michalakis.

He didn't get a direct answer.

Lamola said that before correctional services releases anyone, they engage families and all those who would care for the inmates. They also speak to communities, including ward councillors and traditional leaders, to help integrate inmates back into their communities.

He conceded that, in some cases, the inmates released on the special remission didn't have housing.

"Indeed, sometimes, the [released] inmates do embarrass the department," Lamola said.

He added that "99.9% of parolees" comply with their parole conditions.

The Inkatha Freedom Party's Nhlanhla Hadebe said that, on 16 December 2019, Lamola had said he "must stress that remission is not a solution to overcrowding."

Hadebe asked if remissions had now become the department's attempt at a sustainable solution to overcrowding in prisons.

Lamola said it wasn't true that remissions were the only thing they were doing to alleviate overcrowding.

Other measures included bail, correctional supervision, reclassification of offenders, and compassionate releases for terminally ill or incapacitated inmates.

"We need to deal with the crime situation. When we reduce the level of crime, we'll also reduce the level of overcrowding," Lamola said.

He said research showed that crime would decrease if criminals knew they would be apprehended, successfully prosecuted, and incarcerated.

Research also showed that high inequality led to violent crime. He said that addressing this was a "societal responsibility."

"You can't throw it just to the ANC."

On at least three occasions during the question session, Lamola said the overcrowding problem couldn't be solved by building more prisons because it couldn't keep up with the pace at which criminals were convicted.

Responding to the ANC's Audrey Maleka, Lamola said 97 of the released offenders had reoffended, with 53 of these instances in the Western Cape.

He said most of these inmates were accused of economic crimes, like housebreaking and robbery.

Meanwhile, Zuma has reportedly been campaigning for the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal in recent weeks.

Also not in jail are his friends and benefactors, brothers Rajesh and Atul Gupta.

The Guptas appeared in an Emirati court on 13 February, with the South African authorities completely in the dark, despite requests to be kept in the loop.

Only in April did the South African authorities catch any wind of the brothers' release after a note verbale (diplomatic note) from the South African embassy in Abu Dhabi reached our shores.

Lamola said discussions with the Emirati authorities are ongoing.

South Africa has sent a number of questions to ensure that their extradition application is not rejected again. They can't file another application before then, but the Emirati authorities' response has not been forthcoming.

Lamola said they were still committed that the "Guptas will one day come back to South Africa to account for their sins."

He just couldn't say when "one day" was at the moment.