"Waterkloof Four" court decision wrong and must be reviewed
The Democratic Alliance welcomes the fact that the Department of Correctional Services has now adhered to the court order releasing Mr Van Schalkwyk and Mr Tiedt from Zonderwater Correctional Centre. A court order must be obeyed, and it ought to have been obeyed on Thursday. That would have avoided an unnecessary and unseemly application to the High Court by the offenders' legal team.
That does not mean that the court order is correct. Section 276A of the Criminal Procedure Act makes it very clear that the conversion of a sentence of imprisonment to one of correctional supervision can only be granted if there is less than 5 years left to serve of that sentence. Both the offenders now released had served only three and a half years of a 12 year sentence.
The Department of Correctional Services has informed me that it intends to apply for the review of this decision as a matter of urgency. This is essential for two reasons: first, that the other two co-accused, who are serving their sentences at Pretoria Central, will presumably now apply to be similarly released. The second reason is that the court's decision has profound implications for every inmate serving any sentence of imprisonment. It is to be anticipated that Parole Boards will now be flooded with applications for the conversion of sentence.
It simply cannot be that the legislature intended inmates serving lengthy sentences for serious crimes to have these sentences converted to correctional supervision after serving a fraction of their sentences. It was for that reason that Section 276A was enacted. It provides a reasonable framework for such conversions of sentences, and this framework has been upheld by numerous court decisions.
The decision of the Pretoria Regional Court was frankly wrong in law. It must be corrected.
Statement issued by James Selfe MP, DA Shadow Minister of Correctional Services, December 19 2011
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