Officials accused of bending rules

The rules are being bent for former ANC chief whip and convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni, who is breaking the terms of his release, the DA charges.

This follows the release of Yengeni's correctional supervision conditions by the Department of Correctional Services to the Cape Argus late on Monday.

The move avoided court action by the newspaper which applied for the information in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act.had

One of the conditions is house detention.

Responding to a follow-up question by the Cape Argus for further particulars about house detention, Sharon Kun-ene, the deputy commissioner for social reintegration, said: "House detention implies that portion of the day/night when the probationer or parolee does not work and is compelled to be at home.

"The period of house detention of individual probationers or parolees differs, but shall normally be determined by a probationer's or parolee's ex-pected risk to the community and work obligations."

Probationers or parolees would normally be compelled to be at home, excluding certain periods:

• Working hours and the duration of the journey to and from work.
• Participating in organised sport/activity, proof of which had to be submitted on request.
• The duration of church attendance, proof of which had to be submitted on request.
• A shopping period per day/week, with the days and times depending on individual needs.
• Compulsory engagement in programmes.
• Compulsory engagement in community service.

"An unemployed probation-er or parolee must be compell-ed to be at home, with due consideration of the aforemen- tioned hours and where work is being negotiated at a certain institution," Kunene said.

"Proof must be submitted on request."

The DA, which, like the Cape Argus, was threatening High Court action to force the department to release details of Yengeni's correctional supervision, said the conditions were not stringent enough.

The party's correctional services spokesman, James Selfe, said Yengeni "also ap-pears to have broken the parole conditions on more than one occasion".

"This all points to the same practice of according Mr Yengeni a lighter punishment for his very serious crimes."

Yengeni should have had "phase two status" of correctional supervision based on the level of his crimes and his behaviour while in prison, Selfe said.

"However, according to our information, he was given a 'phase four status' of correctional supervision."

This meant that as he was unemployed, he should be under constant house arrest but for visits to do shopping, community service and church.

"He has been seen at the licensed restaurant, Beluga, where he was neither shopping, doing community service nor at church.

"Once again, Tony Yengeni is breaking his parole conditions, and no action has been taken. Time and time again the rules are bent to accommodate Mr Yengeni."

Yengeni refused to discuss the issue with the Cape Argus yesterday.

With acknowledgement to John Yeld and Cape Argus.