City of Cape Town sheriff, JP Smith, has slammed Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to free nearly 15 000
bandiete just days before Christmas.
The president made the announcement in Bergville, in the KZN Midlands, on Monday while speaking at a Reconciliation Day event.
Minister of Justice and
Correctional Services Ronald Lamola also confirmed 14 647 inmates were eligible for
special remissions.
However, Ramaphosa emphasised that those jailed for sexual offences and violent crimes would not qualify for this special concession.
But DA justice spokeswoman Glynnis Breytenbach, said the pardons is “a slap in the face” of crime victims, the police and prosecutors.
And Smith, the City’s Mayco Member for Safety and Security, says they can expect to see a spike in crime.
“I strongly believe that the early release of prisoners over the last couple of years as a result of overcrowding in prisons has driven much of the conflict on the Cape Flats and has contributed significantly to the gang murders that traumatises many of our communities,” he says.
PARDON: Cyril Ramaphosa
“National government has failed to adequately invest in building prisons to accommodate the growing population of our country and this has caused the Western Cape and Cape Town in specific a great deal of trauma in relation to gang violence and the premature release of people onto our streets.
“This is a fact that I can corroborate by virtue of attending CPF meetings and engaging with station commissioners across the city where these statistics are reported.”
Breytenbach said Ramaphosa’s decision was reckless and mense have a right to be “outraged”.
She said the under-resourced police force and prosecutors worked tirelessly under severe constraints to secure convictions and the pardons flew in the face of these efforts.
She said corruption had undermined the Department of Correctional Services to the point where prisons could not serve as places of rehabilitation.
This raised the spectre of many of the 14 647 inmates who will be released in coming months without normal parole conditions, re-offending, she warned.
Those likely to receive pardons include Kanya Cekeshe, a leader of the #FeesMustFall student protest movement, who set alight a police van, and AbaThembu king Dalindyebo, who is serving a 12-year sentence for crimes including arson, culpable homicide, assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm and kidnapping.
According to the justice ministry, the process of releasing the bandiete on Ramaphosa’s list will begin immediately and could take up to nine months.