Barnard parole to be looked into next year
ANOTHER apartheid-era killer – Ferdi Barnard – jailed for life and serving his time with Eugene de Kock at Kgosi Mampuru II Prison in Pretoria, may soon be a free man.
Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha also undertook, as in the case of De Kock, to decide by the end of January whether Barnard should receive parole.
Correctional Services has agreed to make recommendations to the minister by December 19 regarding Barnard’s possible parole.
Earlier, Masutha had turned down Barnard’s bid for freedom and said that, as in the case of De Kock, Barnard’s victims’ families had to be consulted before parole was granted.
Advocate Roelof du Plessis SC told the high court in Pretoria that meetings had taken place between his client and some of his victims’ families.
However, Du Plessis said restorative justice, whether in the form of consultations with victims, their families or other affected people, was not a legal prerequisite for parole.
He said it was not a requirement in 1996 when Barnard faced an array of charges, including two of murder.
Barnard was sentenced in 1998 to two life sentences as well as a further 63 years in jail. His crimes included the murder of anti-apartheid activist Dr David Webster.