Former ANC Chief Whip and convicted fraudster, Tony Yengeni, will appear at a correctional services hearing for his alleged breach of the parole code of conduct, the department said yesterday.

Opposition parties yesterday called for such a probe, following a Cape Times expose of Yengeni partying at his Milnerton home with friends until after his check-in time of 3pm on Sunday. He was photographed beer in hand, socialising.

If found guilty, his early release on correctional supervision in January after only six months of a four-year jail sentence, could be postponed.

Correctional Services Minister Ncgonde Balfour, who personally received Yengeni at Pollsmoor when he presented himself at the jail in August, said he was "very disappointed" at Yengeni's apparent parole violations. Parliamentary Speaker Baleka Mbete, Premier Ebrahim Rasool and ANC provincial leaders were also there to see Yengeni off.

Balfour has instructed the area commissioner and head of the Malmesbury Correctional Centre to "urgently determine serious sanctions against such conduct" if the allegations proved to be true.

"Once the investigation is completed within the next two days, the minister will also propose to the Deputy Regional Commissioner of Correctional Services in the Western Cape and the Area Commissioner of Malmesbury, that a strong measure and mechanism be introduced ...to sanction and correct the misconduct and violation of parole conditions by any offender, including Yengeni," said ministerial spokesman Luphumzo Kebeni.

"(Balfour) views such conduct in a serious light and is perturbed by the photographs and comments made in the media by people shown in the pictures in the company of Yengeni. There is an urgent need to respect the systems that Correctional Services has put in (place) with regard to the conduct of offenders, irrespective of their political or social standing," he said.

Yengeni is being investigated for allegedly consuming alcohol and arriving back at prison more than an hour late.

Yengeni had phoned area commissioner Sipho Manqele to say he would be late due to car trouble. However, the Cape Times photographed him speeding off from his home in Milnerton at 3.40pm in a black Range Rover while other reporters saw him entering the prison in the same car at 4.15pm.

Correctional Services has asked the Cape Times for copies of the time-stamped digital pictures of Yengeni's departure from his home to assist with their investigation.

Cape Times editor Tyrone August said the department would need to apply in writing before such a request would be considered.

SA Prisoners' Organisation for Human Rights president Golden Miles Bhudu yesterday accused the department of double standards.

"Section 44 of the Correctional Services Act was specifically compiled to help ease reintegration and family reunification of an inmate in prison for a long period of time. But Yengeni did not qualify for a weekend off as he had been in prison for less than three months."

Stellenbosch University law lecturer Gerhard Kemp agreed that the parole practice in Yengeni's case did not appear to accord with the norm.

He said civil society had good reason to ask tough questions about Yengeni's situation.

With acknowledgement to Karen Breytenbach and Cape Times.