JOHANNESBURG: Xolile Mngeni, convicted of murdering newlywed Anni Dewani and ill with a brain tumour, has been refused medical parole because Minister of Correctional Services Michael Masutha believes he may not receive the care he needs.
Masutha had asked that a social worker provide a report urgently on Mngeni’s needs for medical treatment, his spokesman, Mthunzi Mhaga, said yesterday.
“The correctional centre where he is incarcerated has the resources to provide him with adequate assistance,” Mhaga said.
The medical parole advisory board had recommended that Mngeni be granted medical parole.
The correctional supervision and parole board declined the application on the grounds that there were no appropriate arrangements for Mngeni’s supervision, care and treatment in the community into which he would be released.
It is understood Mngeni was admitted to Groote Schuur Hospital last month.
He is serving a life sentence for murder, a concurrent 15 years for robbery, and five years for possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.
Zola Tongo and Mziwamadoda Qwabe are also serving life terms for their roles in the murder of Dewani in Cape Town in 2010. – Sapa