Yengeni protector: Hewana receiving special treatment in jail

Following media reports that Siphiwe Hewana, former commander of the Goodwood police station and the person that tampered with police dockets to protect former ANC Chief Whip Tony Yengeni, is receiving special treatment in jail - no doubt as a reward for his faithful, if unsuccessful, service to the ANC - I will be taking this matter up in Parliament with the Minister of Correctional Services and with the Regional Commissioner of Correctional Services in the Western Cape.

Siphiwe Hewana was found guilty of attempting to defeat the ends of justice in May this year, and was sentenced to 4 years in jail. He was found guilty of ordering a drunk driving docket on former ANC Chief Whip, Tony Yengeni - who was on parole at the time - to be destroyed and the creation of a new docket containing false information- an attempt to protect Yengeni from going back to jail for violating his parole conditions.

Hewana has served less than two months of his sentence and now it has emerged in the media that he is receiving preferential treatment. He is reportedly receiving visitors, even though he is not eligible to. Furthermore, it is alleged that Hewana receives meals from outside of the prison, and does not eat the standard prison meals nor does he wear the standard orange inmate garb. He also apparently complained about being transported in a departmental van with other inmates and was then transported separately without being restrained. It would appear that Mr. Hewana's attempts to serve the ANC faithfully have not been forgotten.

If this information is indeed accurate, it is completely objectionable and makes a mockery of the rule of law. It appears that there is one set of rules for ordinary South Africans and another set of rules for the ANC and those who serve them faithfully. Each person is equal before the law and those with political connections have absolutely no entitlement to special treatment.

I will be asking questions in Parliament to the Minister and will be taking this matter up with the Western Cape Regional Commissioner, Mr Smalberger.

Statement issued by James Selfe, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of correctional services, July 1 2010

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