According to South Africa’s government, its ex-president Jacob Zuma reported to jail on Friday and got freed shortly after in the judicial scandal over his contempt of court sentence.

Zuma was instructed to return to prison, and when he did, the prison service reported he was "admitted into the system" at a correctional facility in Estcourt, northwest of Durban, at 6 am local time.

But as part of a "remission process" intended to reduce jail overcrowding, he was almost immediately released, Correctional Services national commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale said at a press conference in Pretoria.

"Upon admission into the system he was subjected to administrative processes ...He was then released," Thobakgale said.

After refusing to testify before a commission looking into financial corruption and cronyism during his presidency, Zuma was convicted in June 2021; however, he was released on medical parole just two months into his term.

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In the first week of July 2021, he began serving his sentence.

The worst violence to strike the nation since the inception of democracy in South Africa was ignited by his imprisonment and resulted in protests that turned into riots and looting that left more than 350 people dead.

He was hospitalised for an unexplained condition the following month before being given medical parole.

The now 81-year-old was sent back to the Estcourt Correctional Centre in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal state in November of last year after an appeals court determined that the release had been improperly granted.

The South African prison service appealed the ruling, which had approved Zuma's conditional parole, but the Constitutional Court rejected the request last month.