Cape Town - Criminals on parole don’t seem to hesitate to re-offend with more than 500 serious crimes committed by parolees in the first few months of this year.
About 555 serious crimes were committed by parolees in the first quarter of 2022/23 and 1 346 in the 2021/22 financial year.
There were also 1 239 crimes perpetrated by re-offenders between March 2020 and March 31, with robbery, theft, housebreaking, murder and rape the most committed offences.
This was according to Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola in his reply to a parliamentary question by DA MP Janho Engelbrecht, who wanted to know the current status of the review of the parole policy of his department.
Engelbrecht also enquired about serious crimes committed by parolees since 2020.
“In an attempt to arrive at a reasonable explanation for failures in the parole system, the amended composition versus the original composition of parole boards, prerequisite qualifications and or experience of its members as well as what exactly should be taken into consideration by parole boards before coming to a decision of whether to grant parole or not, have to be investigated,” said Engelbrecht.
He said recent cases including Tazné van Wyk’s murder accused who was out on parole and a parolee who raped women five days after release, served as practical examples of the damage such failures inflict on the integrity and public trust in the Department of Correctional Services.
“There are huge shortcomings in the system and a dysfunctional parole system in a democratic society is a risk. We need to start seeing a change,” said Engelbrecht.
Commission for Gender Equality spokesperson Javu Baloyi said the crime statistics would continue to paint a bleak picture of escalating crime and send the wrong message to society.
“Most crimes in the country are committed by re-offenders, these are known killers, rapists and thieves.
Even when they are in prison they live large, enjoying benefits of the state.
A luxury of televisions and telephones. So much money is used on these parolees who are not interested in changing. President Cyril Ramaphosa claims not to be sleeping because of Eskom, we are struggling to sleep because of GBV,” said Baloyi.
Lamola said the department produced a draft Position Paper on the revised parole system for South Africa which was intended to form a basis for discussion and consultation with all role-players and other interested parties on proposals, with a view to finalise an appropriate new parole system for the country.
“The Position Paper was consulted with the National Council for Correctional Services (NCCS), Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services, Medical Parole Advisory Board and Parole Boards for inputs.
Thereafter, it was referred to the NCCS in terms of section 84(2) of the Correctional Services Act, 111 of 1998. The recommendations of the NCCS have been submitted back for consideration with a view to the way forward. ”
Cape Times