Review of parole system moving at a snail’s pace
Lamola at wits’ end over early prison releases
More than two years after justice and correctional services minister Ronald Lamola called for the review of the parole system, little has happened.
Lamola this week told Sowetan that the review process had started in April this year and was in its preliminary stages. He could not say by when the review process findings and outcomes could be expected.
In March 2020, Lamola called an urgent meeting with the correctional services department and the parole board to address the effectiveness of the parole system.
This was a few days after two parolees were arrested in separate cases for the killing and raping of minors in the Western Cape.
Lamola made the call after Tazne van Wyk, 8, was kidnapped and murdered, allegedly by a 54-year-old man who was out on parole.
The man has not been named to protect the identities of some of his relatives who he also allegedly sexually assaulted.
Speaking on the SABC in February 2020, Lamola said: “We sympathise with the outrage from the community and it is worrying us because it affects the system of rehabilitation.
“It does show from our system that there are some systematic weaknesses, particularly in the province of the Western Cape.
“Throughout the country, there is some stability in terms of the system and we are in the process of review.
“But if you can look into the whole system, there is a huge number also that is contributing positively to society.
“The lapse in the system is that we need to professionalise the board processes in terms of the people who help us to make the decisions.”
Lamola has repeated the same concerns and added that he had approached the department of planning, monitoring and evaluation to address the lingering problem of parolees being released only to return to the life of crime shortly thereafter.
Lamola was speaking in the backdrop of the gender-based violence presidential summit in Midrand this week, looking at recent cases of killers of women and children having been released on parole. These include Collen Hlongwane, who had been charged with Bontle Mashiyane’s murder. Hlongwane was previously released twice on
parole – for attempted murder he committed in 2008 and a 2013 murder.
Ntokozo Zikhali, 30, who is accused of the rape and murder of Bokgabo Poo, 4, last month was out on bail for another rape when he killed the girl.
Also in October, Bosman Mashinini allegedly murdered his girlfriend three months after being released on parole, after serving four years and 10 months of an eight-year sentence for rape. Mashinini was in 1997 sentenced to three years for culpable homicide, wholly suspended for five years. In 1999 he served six months for housebreaking.
He proceeded to commit a robbery offence in 2006 and was sentenced to 10 years but was out on the streets when he was jailed for rape in 2016. He was on parole for this charge when he allegedly killed his 21-yearold girlfriend Zinhle Mokoena last month.
Said Lamola: “The concerns around the parole system are well founded. We cannot have a perception that our correctional centres harden criminals even further.”
Lamola said his ministry was responding in three ways.
“Firstly, we have ensured that the standard operating procedures for parole are strengthened. As a result, victim-offender dialogues have become important components of the parole system.
“Secondly, we have put in place a comprehensive process which looks at the composition of parole boards. All of the above are being implemented.
“Thirdly, we are now at the stage at which the department of planning, monitoring and evaluation is conducting an independent review of our rehabilitation programmes. The aim is to get a socioeconomic impact assessment report on the efficacy of our rehabilitation systems.”
Lamola announced in September that parolees had committed 555 crimes in the first quarter of the 2022/23 government calendar. These included 50 murders, 123 cases of theft, 71 robberies and 66 house break-ins.
This week, police minister Bheki Cele blamed the high number of rape incidents on “repeat offenders”, saying SA did not have a high number of rapists, but that most rape convicts were repeat offenders.
‘‘ We can’t have perception jail hardens criminals