Late-morning on Thursday, a delegation from parliament, headed by Archibold Jomo Nyambi of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), met Fusi Mofokeng, 42, and Tshokolo Joseph Mokoena, 49, in the office of Oupa Moleke, deputy director of the Centre A at Kroonstad prison.
The delegation was there to "report" to the two men on whether and when they might get out of jail, as required by parliamentary rules on the rights of petitioners.
Mofokeng and Mokoena have been in prison for 17 years for crimes that it seems they did not commit. Their trial record shows they were convicted mainly on the evidence given by a man, now dead, who later admitted giving false testimony as a result of pressure from the security police, coupled with the promise of a pay-off.
Their case has been taken up by the NCOP's Petitions and Private Members' Legislative Proposals Select Committee that is chaired by Nyambi. After being alerted to the plight of the men and having met them a couple of months ago, Nyambi arranged for his committee to be briefed by the departments of justice and correctional services and by the state law adviser, Enver Daniels.
The committee heard at the end of last month that it appeared that Mofokeng and Mokoena had been victims of a miscarriage of justice and that the best option for having them released quickly was in terms of section 82 of the Correctional Services Act, 1998 (Act No 111 of 1998), which gives the state president the power to remit any part of a sentenced offender's sentence.
For the president to use the powers invested in him by section 82, the person or people to be pardoned need not admit guilt, apologise or anything of this nature. (Part of the four-person delegation, "Mum" Jabu Sosibo, whip of the petitions committee in the National Assembly (NA), said: "Maybe it is this society that owes the two of them an apology.") This is an important point when it comes to Mofokeng and Mokoena because, notwithstanding 17 years in jail and another three until parole (if they are not pardoned now), they continue to maintain adamantly that they are innocent and to refuse to admit any culpability.