Derby-Lewis Parole: 3 reasons why DA opposes his release

The media have reported that convicted murderer, Mr Clive Derby-Lewis, may be released from prison on parole before the end of the year. The Democratic Alliance (DA) opposes parole being granted to Mr Clive Derby-Lewis for the following reasons:

1. Although he technically qualifies for parole, Mr Derby-Lewis has served only 17 years of a life sentence. Ordinarily, offenders serving life sentences qualify to be considered for parole after serving a minimum of 25 years. The legislation was framed in this way to ensure that, in the absence of the death penalty (which was the sentence initially passed on Mr Derby-Lewis), murderers and others convicted of heinous crimes would receive a sentence that reflected society's abhorrence for the offences they had committed.

17 years is an inappropriately short sentence for murder. It trivialises the crime and is an insult to the memory of the hundreds of thousands of murder victims in South Africa and to their families.

2. Mr Derby-Lewis's crime was pre-meditated and carefully planned. The murder of Mr Chris Hani brought South Africa perilously close to melt-down and even to civil war. Mr Derby-Lewis must have anticipated the consequences of his actions - indeed, he may have hoped to elicit this reaction. Thus his crime affected not only the victim and the Hani family, but it also had serious consequences for the wider community. In our view, this constitutes an aggravating circumstance, that should be taken into account in rejecting his parole application.

3. It is a central feature of our Constitution that everyone should be equal before the law. Mr Derby-Lewis and Mr Janusz Walus were both convicted of the same offence, and appropriately received the same sentence. It is unfair for Mr Derby-Lewis to be granted parole while Mr Walus does not qualify for it, simply because Mr Derby-Lewis is over 65 years of age, and Mr Walus is not.

The Parole Board has exercised its judgment that Mr Derby-Lewis is rehabilitated and should be paroled. The National Council on Correctional Services must now advise the Minister of Correctional Services (and not of Justice, as was erroneously reported in the weekend media) whether Mr Derby-Lewis should be released on parole.

We do not believe that he should, for reasons stated above. We also doubt in the extreme whether his release on parole can contribute in any way to reconciliation, since the TRC (to which this discretion was given) refused to accept that the crime Mr Derby-Lewis perpetrated was politically inspired.

We therefore call on the National Council and the Minister to reject Mr Derby-Lewis's application until he has served at least 25 years of his life sentence.

Statement issued by James Selfe, MP, Democratic Alliance Shadow Minister of Correctional Services, September 13 2010

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