Forty percent of parolees commit rape and murder. What are you going to do about it?
Normally, murderers and rapists get life sentences. And when it comes to the parole of lifers, I — as minister — have to make a decision on the profile in front of me. There was a backlog of 495. We’ve worked it quite down. Very, very few have been approved under my ministry. I will make very sure that when it comes to reoffending, the number is very, very low. I have an obligation to the public to ensure the risks of reoffending are at an absolute minimum.
How can you ensure this, when the parole boards decide they’ve been rehabilitated and qualify to be released?
You look at the psychological report, the risk analysis, the social worker report, the report of the criminologist.
Hasn’t all this been done for years?
It has been done, but then it depends on the decision of the minister. I’m not going to talk on behalf of predecessors. I’m just telling you that I’m very strict on that.
Will you be looking at the composition of parole boards?
Of course. But parole boards are making decisions on other offenders. It’s only decisions about lifers that land on my desk. In two recent cases, I asked for a review and overturned the decision of the parole board. We will have to review and revise the parole system. I’m looking at a task team of experts to look at that. You must remember, the ordinary parole boards consist of six members, four of whom are members of the community.
Community policing forums say the release of parolees causes a spike in gang violence, so community representation on parole boards isn't helping communities?
When it comes to the normal parole boards, I have the power to ask for a review, and in certain cases I’ve done that. These parole boards were appointed last year by the former minister, so I have no jurisdiction to appoint new members. The delegation of power to the national commissioner to appoint members when there are vacancies, has been withdrawn. I’m going to appoint them, and I’ll see that the correct people are appointed.
Parolees are clearly not being supervised or monitored. How will you fix that?
I spoke to the national commissioner. There was an operation to see whether parolees are keeping to the preconditions of their parole. Eleven of them were found to be violating their conditions, and they are back in our facilities. We’ve started doing those operations more and more. It’s the same with raids we have on some of our facilities, we will continue with that.
So there’s going to be tighter monitoring and supervision?
Yes. But I must be honest with you, there are financial constraints. To give you an indication, the budget of correctional services has been cut by R11.7bn over the past five years. We have those challenges, but we will do everything in our power to ensure there’s proper control over parolees.
Apart from tighter supervision, how will you cut reoffending from 40%?
My information is it’s 80%. We must ensure rehabilitation programmes are properly done.
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