Cape Town — Minister of Correctional Services, Pieter Groenewald, has informed the department’s Portfolio Committee on its current status regarding lifer parole applications.
In a statement, the Department said the National Council for Correctional Services (NCCS) looks at the profiles of offenders serving life sentences and then makes recommendations to the Minister, who will decide whether parole is granted.
Since taking charge of the Department, Groenewald has received 60 profiles from the NCCS, which have since been attended to, while he also attended to 325 historic applications.
Minister of Correctional Services, Dr Pieter Groenewald pledges to resolve Life sentence Parole backlog by 15 October 2024. pic.twitter.com/R5fiBGYXZ5
— The Department Correctional Services 🇿🇦 (@DCS_ZA) September 17, 2024
The Citizen reported that only 6% of the 385 applications met the relevant criteria for parole, meaning just 23 were approved. One applicant received day parole, which means the inmate must return to the facility at night. The remaining 361 applications were denied.
“Upon assuming office, Dr Groenewald inherited 495 lifer profiles from the 6th administration, of which only 170 are still pending final consideration. He has pledged to resolve this backlog by 15 October 2024,” Department spokesperson, Eune Oelofsen, said.
Groenewald gave his gratitude to the NCCS and the secretariat for their efforts to address the backlog and he said the Ministry would persist in developing an effective system that would expedite the consideration of lifer profiles for parole.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
