Pivotal date set ‘shifting numbers game’ in motion
PAROLE is a shifting numbers game for lifers – those sentenced to jail for heinous crimes.
The pivotal date for eligibility to apply for parole was October 1 2004.
On this date, the law changed to state that lifers sentenced from this date onwards would have to spend 25 years in jail before becoming eligible for parole.
Arguments broke out from those lifers sentenced before this date.
Two court rulings have been used to say this group are eligible for parole after 12 years.
Here is how those arguments panned out.
Justice Minister Michael Masutha has stated in a report on parole consideration for lifers and others that prisoners sentenced to life in jail will not be considered for parole until they have served 25 years.
Masutha said the two cases which had an impact on the minimum jail term were the Van Vuuren and Van Wyk judgments.
Van Vuuren Judgment:
On September 30 2010, a Constitutional Court ruling in the case of Van Vuuren v Minister of Correctional Services and Others changed the manner in which inmates sentenced to life before October 1 2004 were considered for parole.
The court held that offenders sentenced to life before October 1 2004, be considered for the possibility of release on parole after serving a period of 20 years, with a few exceptions. Van Wyk Judgment: On July 15 2011, the North Gauteng High Court ruled that offenders sentenced to life before October 1 2004 were entitled to:
Be supplied with the date on which they may be considered for parole based on credits (for good behaviour) earned in terms of Section 22A of the Correctional Services Act, 1959, and;
Be considered for parole in terms of the policy of the department which applied at the date of the commission of the crimes for which they are serving life imprisonment.
Masutha said: “This meant the 20 years consideration date was brought forward by six years and eight months”.
He said that in June 2012, President Jacob Zuma announced a special remission of sentence which “advanced the consideration date of lifers by another six months”.
Taking the allocation of credits, as well as the two special remissions of sentence, it now meant “the Van Wyk group became eligible for consideration for parole after serving a minimum period of 12 years and four months”.
This is the argument being used by 376 lifers in the Eastern Cape.
Eastern Cape department of correctional service commissioner Nkosinathi Breakfast said offenders sentenced to life after October 1 2004 must serve 25 years and be referred back to court.