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Azra Hoosen | ah@radioislam.co.za
16th January 2024 | 15:30 CAT
2 Min read

Several prisoners who benefitted from the special remission programme when former President Jacob Zuma was released last year are back behind bars.

Correctional Services revealed that 97 out of the 16,472 arrested convicts were caught in criminal activities within a week or two of their early release, making this a serious security concern.

The decision to release the prisoners has been met with intense criticism from the DA and sparked controversy as to whether the cabinet prioritised political interest over the safety and security of the public.

“Cabinet came up with this idea to do something about the extreme overpopulation issue in prison, but given the number of re-arrests, that is not the real reason for releasing them. What is worrying is the violent crimes committed by these released prisoners, which could have been prevented,” said DA MP Janho Engelbrecht.

Cyril Ramaphosa’s special remission process, which began in August 2023 and concluded in November 2023, resulted in the release of former President Jacob Zuma and 97 other prisoners who did not serve their full sentence.

“The ANC feared a repeat of the July 2021 riots when Zuma was incarcerated the first time, thus the reason as to why this special remission was done to free him,” added Engelbrecht.

Engelbrecht claims that due to the remission process, the government released convicts who did not undergo rehabilitation or reintegration programmes to make space for remanded detainees.

“The way to address this issue is to discuss with the Department of Justice, the Magistrates Court, and the National Prosecuting Authority, start-up night courts and get through this tremendous backlog of remand detainees because there are more than 52,000 of them. Our prisons were not designed to carry that capacity,” said Engelbrecht.

The re-arrest of an illegal immigrant raised eyebrows, as it is dubious how the inmate was released without proper documentation or the intervention of Home Affairs.
“When illegal immigrants commit crimes, they need to be repatriated, but the illegal immigrant who was released was then re-arrested; this is not supposed to happen if the procedures and systems set in place by the government itself are followed correctly,” said Engelbrecht.

One of the senior officials at Modderbee prison, located in East Rand, said that the number of foreigners exceeds that of SA Citizens incarcerated at this large facility.
“Such problems result from the open borders that are not patrolled and dysfunctional home affairs,” expressed Engelbrecht.

Engelbrecht said the information released is only until October last year. The current figure and investigation of how many of the 16,472 criminals were released or reoffended without consequence is unknown.

LISTEN to the full interview with Ml. Junaid Kharsany and DA Shadow Minister of Correctional Services, Janho Engelbrecht, here.