Johannesburg - The man who plotted the brazen R100 million robbery at OR Tambo International Airport has hauled the Correctional Services minister to court.
Christopher Mark Billings is challenging his pending transfer to a prison facility in Limpopo.
Citing section 43 of the Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998, Billings is claiming prejudice after correctional officials informed him he would be moved from Johannesburg Medium B Prison to the Venda Kutama Correctional Centre in Limpopo.
The act provides that “a sentenced prisoner must be housed at the prison closest to the place where he or she is to reside after release, with due regard to the availability of accommodation and facilities to meet his or her security requirements with reference to the availability of programmes”.
Billings is serving 20 years for the heist, which saw an armed gang pouncing on flight SA237 in March 2006 and walking away with R100m in foreign currency.
In papers before the High Court in Joburg, he said: “The transfer will prejudice and inconvenience me as I have a very serious medical condition.”
Having previously been transferred to that facility temporarily, he said he and his family had “suffered emotionally and financially as it is very costly for my family to cover visitation and transportation costs”.
His mother was a pensioner, and travelling to Limpopo to visit him would take its toll on her, he said. “I am not from that province and I reside in Johannesburg.”
The respondent should also take into account that the applicant was a registered student and currently busy with his studies in the Joburg correctional centre, Billings added.
The department has challenged Billings’s interpretation of section 43 of the act, focusing on the second part of the section, which addresses the availability of accommodation and facilities to meet (a prisoner’s) security requirements”.
It says: “It is correct that, in terms of the Correctional Services Act, a prisoner must be housed at a prison closest to the place where he or she is to reside after release as envisaged by section 43(1). However, this must take into account the availability of accommodation and the facilities to meet the security and the programmes of the prisoner.”
In an affidavit, the centre’s deputy director, Walter Ndabandaba, cited overcrowding.
The case was postponed indefinitely.
The Star