Former president Jacob Zuma is currently unwell and seeking medical assistance in Moscow, Russia, News24 has confirmed. 

This is as the Constitutional Court on Thursday dismissed the Department of Correctional Services' application for leave to appeal a Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruling that he must go back to prison.

Two sources with direct knowledge of Zuma’s trip said the former president had left on Monday for Moscow, where he was receiving medical treatment.

He flew commercially to Russia, accompanied by six VIP protectors paid for by the state. 

Jacob Zuma Foundation spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi confirmed to News24 that the former president was in Moscow and was seeking medical assistance. 

"He went for medical check ups. He has not been feeling well," Manyi said. He is expected to return to South Africa next week. 

Zuma has long relied on the Russian healthcare system, ever since he was allegedly poisoned in 2014. 

In dismissing the application for leave to appeal Zuma’s medical parole, the Constitutional Court said an appeal had "no reasonable prospects of success". 

This means the November judgment of the SCA, which said: "Mr Zuma, in law, has not finished serving his sentence. He must return to the Estcourt Correctional Centre to do so," stands. 

Zuma was jailed in July 2021 for 15 months 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 the Medical Parole Advisory Board's (MPAB) recommendation that the former president did not qualify for it.

The Democratic Alliance, AfriForum and Helen Suzman Foundation asked the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to review Fraser's decision and set it aside. Judge Elias Matojane found the decision unlawful.

Manyi said the foundation would not comment on the Constitutional Court decision.

"It was only DCS that appealed the SCA judgement, and H.E President Zuma only applied for leave to intervene as an interested party only if the appeal was to take place," he said.