Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

3-minute read
15 August 2023 | 19:38 CAT

ActionSA

Opposition parties have expressed outrage over a new plan to release almost nine-thousand-500 low-risk prisoners to alleviate prison overpopulation as part of a remission of sentence programme.

There is cynicism after Justice and Correctional Service’s Minister Ronald Lamola announced a remission of sentence programme on Friday morning. He added that President Cyril Ramaphosa signed off on the programme on Thursday.

The first person to benefit was former president Jacob Zuma, who spent around two hours at the Estcourt Correctional on Friday before being formally released.

Former Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela, in favour of the decision and particular reference to the president, said, “The point has been made, he has spent some time in prison in jail when people that he wouldn’t spend any. There is no point in pursuing this further.”

However, some condemn this as people should be equal before the rule of law, and if a particular accommodation was to be made for the former president, why add another 9500 odd prisoners? The president and his ministers suggest that there is simultaneously overcrowding at prisons.

This move makes a mockery of the criminal justice system in South Africa by demonstrating once again that President Ramaphosa puts the ANC first and the country second, ActionSA President Herman Mashaba.

The criminal and civil justice system relies on the principle of ensuring that there are consequences for unlawful acts. President Zuma knowingly and deliberately defied our Apex Court and publicly demonstrated his disdain for the legal system. Instead of affirming the supremacy of the Rule of Law in South Africa by ensuring that Zuma accounts for these actions, President Ramaphosa’s government has bent over backwards to allow him to evade the consequences of these actions, he said.

“The Rule of Law has been consistently undermined and eroded by the ANC government over the past three decades. Today South Africa faces some of the highest murder and rape rates in the world, with the Thabo Bester matter being a case study in how dysfunctional our criminal justice system has become. As a party based on the Rule of Law, ActionSA will fight to restore this cornerstone of our Constitution and ensure that the justice system is an effective deterrent to unlawfulness,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mashaba argues that the education system has failed its people due to the ANC ensuring that South Africans are not an educated nation. Still, if the country’s laws are not respected, it is a sad and unfortunate day.

Listen to the full interview on Sabahul Muslim with Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat.