ANC’s Lungisa ‘not pardoned’

The department of correctional services (DCS) has distanced itself from a statement by a group called the “Release Andile Lungisa Campaign”.

The group alleges Lungisa, the former ANC Nelson Mandela Bay councillor, will be released from prison on 1 December after being “pardoned”.

Lungisa, who is the former ANC Youth League deputy president, has applied for leave to appeal his three-year sentence to the apex court after the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) upheld his sentence of three years in prison (one year suspended) for assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

In 2018, Lugisa was found guilty of smashing a glass jug on the head of Democratic Alliance councillor Rano Kayser during a scuffle in the council in 2016.

He has opted to remain behind bars to finish the prison programmes he has started, despite being granted bail in the wake of his Constitutional Court appeal.

The Release Andile Lungisa Campaign issued a statement saying: “After serving his term behind the bars for more than two months, Andile Lungisa will be welcomed by the masses of our country on 1 December 2020 at North End Prison. He is the hero among heroes and his history of activism speaks for itself.”

However, the department’s Singabakho Nxumalo sa id not only did they not pardon any inmates but would not reveal the details surrounding any inmate’s release from jail either.

“We distance ourselves from that statement – a lot of the information is inaccurate,” he said.

Thabo Kupa, one of the signatories of the statement, could not say what information the statement was based on.

He, however, referred to government’s special remission of sentences at the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown, although this did not include any pardons or specify when any particular inmate would be released.