Publication: Business Day Issued: Date: 2006-11-15 Reporter: Wyndham Hartley Reporter:

Furore in Parliament over Yengeni’s Parole

 

Publication 

Business Day
Date 2006-11-15

Reporter

 Wyndham Hartley

Web Link

www.businessday.co.za

 

Cape Town ­ Parliament’s correctional services committee has vowed to hold both the parole board and prison officials to account if disgraced African National Congress (ANC) heavyweight Tony Yengeni’s alleged parole violations are not properly investigated.

Yengeni last weekend enjoyed a two-day parole, but he was allegedly more than an hour late for his 3pm return to Malmesbury Prison on Sunday, and also apparently consumed alcohol while on parole, which is forbidden.

Yengeni’s weekend parole caused an outcry from opposition parties, and Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour expressed “disappointment and unhappiness” with his behaviour.

It also emerged at the committee’s meeting yesterday that Yengeni’s jaunt could be very costly for him, as the Correctional Services Act treats a late return from parole as “absconding”, and if the inmate is found guilty, provides for a prison sentence of up to 10 years for the offence.

The committee, under the chairmanship of ANC MP Dennis Bloem, also agreed to look into allegations that there was preferential treatment in prisons for people such as Yengeni and Schabir Shaik.

Democratic Alliance MP James Selfe told the committee that according to the law governing prisons, arriving late from parole was an offence, which was punishable upon conviction with a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. He said it was intolerable that there was one set of treatment for the rich and another for ordinary people.

In response to Selfe in the National Assembly, Balfour said he took the allegations of parole violations very seriously and that was why he had called for a speedy report.

Balfour promised that if Yengeni was found to have violated his parole, he would be dealt with in terms of the law as would any other prisoner who had done the same.

He promised that there were no “VIP prisons in SA”.

Bloem responded that the committee should not take over the work of either the parole board or the area commissioner.

“Let us give them a chance to do their work and investigate the Yengeni parole issue. Let us not find him guilty until they have done their investigations,” Bloem said.

He said, however, that the parole board and the area commissioner should report to the committee on their findings and said if necessary the committee would be recalled during the Christmas recess to consider their findings.

With acknowledgements to Wyndham Hartley and Business Day.