Jason Felix
FORMER Hard Livings gang leader Rashied Staggie was set to have been released on day parole in a second attempt at it yesterday, but a glitch with a tracking device meant he remained behind bars for another night.
Staggie, 56, is therefore expected to be released from Pollsmoor Prison today.
He had initially been granted day parole on September 23, two thirds into a 15-year jail sentence for rape, but this had been revoked by the Correctional Services Department on December 5 as he had broken his parole conditions. Staggie’s second go at day parole was meant to have started yesterday.
“There were some problems with his tracking device and his release had to be delayed,” Western Cape Correctional Services spokesman Simphiwe Xako said.
Staggie’s renewed day parole is meant to run until September 17.
He is eligible for full parole from September 18 to March 23, 2017.
Correctional Services Department spokesman Manelisi Wolela said day parole was meant to ensure high-risk offenders were given a trial period to ensure they were eligible for full parole.
He said the parole board had looked at Staggie’s initial parole violation and had decided to reinstate the day parole.
Staggie’s lawyer Janos Mihalik told the Cape Times his client was granted day parole for a second time because he had behaved well in prison.
As part of the conditions of his release, Staggie is to report to Pollsmoor Prison between 6am and 7.30pm daily, he may not enter Manenberg or leave Cape Town without the permission of the parole board chair and needs to be employed.
Staggie is therefore to return to his job as general worker at Unkonwaba Investments – run by Ivan Waldeck, a gangster-turned-pastor at Bellville South premises used as a church and gangster rehabilitation centre.
He had worked there before his initial day parole had been revoked.
Yesterday Waldeck said in a meeting with the Correctional Services Department, officers had refreshed what Staggie would be allowed to do while on day parole.
Waldeck said aside from general work, Staggie would be used to help teens caught up in gangs.
“He will work as a general worker. But I am also going to get him to speak to youths caught up in gangs. He would try and rehabilitate them. He was a gangster and I am sure he knows how to teach youngsters to stay away from the gangs,” he said.
A decade ago, Staggie was found guilty of giving orders and participating in the kidnapping and rape of a teenage girl from Mitchells Plain.
Later, while he was in custody, he was convicted of stealing weapons from the Faure police armoury and sentenced to 13 years, to run concurrently with the 15-year rape sentence.
A few months ago Staggie made headlines when he signed up with the newly-launched political party the Patriotic Alliance, headed by ex-convicts Gayton McKenzie and Kenny Kunene.