Two must go back to jail, say judges

THE LATEST attempt by two members of the so-called Waterkloof Four to stay out of jail was dismissed in the Pretoria High Court yesterday.

Judges Hans Fabricius, Ephraim Makgoba and Wendy Hughes denied an application by Reinach Tiedt and Gert van Schalkwyk for leave to appeal against an earlier ruling that they return to Zonderwater Prison.

The judges granted an order to Correctional Services Minister Sibusiso Ndebele that any further applications for leave to appeal should not suspend the previous order.

They gave Tiedt and Van Schalkwyk – who have been under house arrest for almost two years – until noon yesterday to report back to Zonderwater prison.

The two, with Christoff Becker and Frikkie du Preez, were sentenced in January 2005 to 12 years’ imprisonment for murdering a man in a Pretoria park in 2001. They started serving their sentences in August 2008 after an unsuccessful appeal.

A Pretoria magistrate converted Tiedt’s and Van Schalkwyk’s sentences to correctional supervision in December 2011 after an application by the parole board. Correctional Services appealed against the decision and the High Court ruled in June that the magistrate’s ruling had been based on an error and that the two had to return to jail. The judges found that Tiedt and Van Schalkwyk were not entitled to parole if more than five years of their sentence remained.

Their lawyer, Jaap Cilliers SC, argued it would “ruin” their lives if they had to go back to jail when there was a chance that an appeal might eventually succeed.

Judge Fabricius said nothing new had been put before the court and that six judges of the High Court had already interpreted the relevant statutory provisions in the Criminal Procedure Act in the same manner.

They were free to apply to the Supreme Court of Appeal or even the Constitutional Court for leave to appeal, but the rule of law required that they return to prison. – Sapa