Almost 200 prisoners serving life sentences in five Eastern Cape prisons have turned to the courts to compel Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha to release them on parole.
The 194 applicants, who filed court papers at the Bhisho, Mthatha and East London high courts, are among the 376 lifers in the Eastern Cape who are still serving out sentences for murders, rapes and robberies despite qualifying for parole.
Their lawyer Lwandile Singqumba, of Singqumba Attorneys, argues that his clients, once classified as dangerous, are now rehabilitated after going through all the programmes, making them eligible for parole.
Of the 194 inmates, 53 are at the Mdantsane prison, 37 in Middledrift, 88 in St Albans in Port Elizabeth, 14 at Wellington in Mthatha and two at the female section of the West Bank facility in East London.
Two of the 194 inmates were handed the death penalty in 1984 and 1993 and lived on death row until their sentences were commuted to life sentences in 2000, documents seen by the Dispatch revealed.
These two unnamed inmates are in St Albans and Middledrift.
Singqumba admitted that parole was not a right but a privilege.
“The lifers appreciate that this is a privilege but they have a legitimate expectation because they finished the detention period and attended the programmes aimed at training, treating and rehabilitating them, and approached the courts as a last resort.”
Singqumba said all the lifers he was representing had strong cases, and have completed the required minimum detention period of 12 years and four months.
“The information we gathered from the offenders is that Correctional Services is facing a backlog of granting parole, meaning that people are not doing their jobs,” Singqumba said.
Speaking to the Dispatch yesterday, Correctional Services provincial commissioner Nkosinathi Breakfast admitted his department was battling a backlog of parole applications.
“Some prisoners don’t have identity books, some were sentenced by the old government and tracking court remarks dating back decades ago has proven to be a headache,” said Breakfast.
He confirmed the department had received the court papers from the applicants. However, he added, lifers were not considered for parole by the parole board but by the minister.
“All we do is submit our recommendations to the national office, which then takes them to the minister. However, we are committed in solving this matter.”
In the court papers, the inmates ask the court to declare the Department of Correctional Services’ failure to consider them for parole wrongful, to review the situation and to set the rest of their sentences aside.
In their application, the applicants rely on the 2010 case of Van Vuuren v Minister of Correctional Services and others in the Gauteng High Court.
In that matter Judge BA Mashile ordered the minister to consider, with immediate effect, all inmates who had already served 10 years of their sentences and who were sentenced before October 1 2004 to life imprisonment for parole.
This was before the new Act 111 of 1998 came into effect in 2004, doing away with credits. In the old system lifers accumulated credits for active involvement in sport, arts and culture, which is said to contribute to behavioural change.
The lifers argue that they were sentenced under the old law, Correctional Services Act 8 of 1959.
The court found that Van Vuuren, and others sentenced to life imprisonment before October 1 2004, qualified for consideration for placement on parole after serving ten 10 years of their sentences.
In the court papers Masutha and his department are listed as first respondents. Second are heads of various prisons, third deputy heads, fourth case management committees and the fifth respondent is the parole board. The application also requests that the respondents pay costs.
194 Eastern Cape life convicts sue state
The 194 applicants, who filed court papers at the Bhisho, Mthatha and East London high courts, are among the 376 lifers in the Eastern Cape who are still serving out sentences for murders, rapes and robberies despite qualifying for parole.
Their lawyer Lwandile Singqumba, of Singqumba Attorneys, argues that his clients, once classified as dangerous, are now rehabilitated after going through all the programmes, making them eligible for parole.
Of the 194 inmates, 53 are at the Mdantsane prison, 37 in Middledrift, 88 in St Albans in Port Elizabeth, 14 at Wellington in Mthatha and two at the female section of the West Bank facility in East London.
Two of the 194 inmates were handed the death penalty in 1984 and 1993 and lived on death row until their sentences were commuted to life sentences in 2000, documents seen by the Dispatch revealed.
These two unnamed inmates are in St Albans and Middledrift.
Singqumba admitted that parole was not a right but a privilege.
“The lifers appreciate that this is a privilege but they have a legitimate expectation because they finished the detention period and attended the programmes aimed at training, treating and rehabilitating them, and approached the courts as a last resort.”
Singqumba said all the lifers he was representing had strong cases, and have completed the required minimum detention period of 12 years and four months.
“The information we gathered from the offenders is that Correctional Services is facing a backlog of granting parole, meaning that people are not doing their jobs,” Singqumba said.
Speaking to the Dispatch yesterday, Correctional Services provincial commissioner Nkosinathi Breakfast admitted his department was battling a backlog of parole applications.
“Some prisoners don’t have identity books, some were sentenced by the old government and tracking court remarks dating back decades ago has proven to be a headache,” said Breakfast.
He confirmed the department had received the court papers from the applicants. However, he added, lifers were not considered for parole by the parole board but by the minister.
“All we do is submit our recommendations to the national office, which then takes them to the minister. However, we are committed in solving this matter.”
In the court papers, the inmates ask the court to declare the Department of Correctional Services’ failure to consider them for parole wrongful, to review the situation and to set the rest of their sentences aside.
In their application, the applicants rely on the 2010 case of Van Vuuren v Minister of Correctional Services and others in the Gauteng High Court.
In that matter Judge BA Mashile ordered the minister to consider, with immediate effect, all inmates who had already served 10 years of their sentences and who were sentenced before October 1 2004 to life imprisonment for parole.
This was before the new Act 111 of 1998 came into effect in 2004, doing away with credits. In the old system lifers accumulated credits for active involvement in sport, arts and culture, which is said to contribute to behavioural change.
The lifers argue that they were sentenced under the old law, Correctional Services Act 8 of 1959.
The court found that Van Vuuren, and others sentenced to life imprisonment before October 1 2004, qualified for consideration for placement on parole after serving ten 10 years of their sentences.
In the court papers Masutha and his department are listed as first respondents. Second are heads of various prisons, third deputy heads, fourth case management committees and the fifth respondent is the parole board. The application also requests that the respondents pay costs.
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