Pretoria - A judge said she was “appalled” by the shoddy manner in which correctional services handled the case of a man who handed himself over more than six years ago to serve his jail time, but was sent home as the officials did not yet have his case file.
Edwin Rapholo of Limpopo was at the time told to go home, as correctional services officials would fetch him once they got his file from the high court.
He waited for more than six years, meanwhile got married and had two children, with the third on its way and he obtained work at Cell C.
In a sudden turn of events, correctional services officers arrived at his home a few weeks ago, to take him to prison. He asked the officials for a stay of the warrant for his arrest, but this was met with “a stony refusal”.
He is now asking the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to interdict the authorities from arresting him, pending an application for reconsideration of his three year jail sentence for culpable homicide.
Rapholo said his circumstances had changed drastically since more than six years ago when he was sentenced and it would be unfair to expect him to now go back to jail.
Acting Judge Brenda Neukircher, in the opening of her judgement on Wednesday, said: “If the present facts were not so appalling, one might be constrained to believe that they formed the script of a play of a new television series or a movie, but alas no.”
She interdicted the authorities from arresting Rapholo, provided that he within 15 days instituted appeal proceedings against his initial sentence. She made it clear that his arrest had to be stayed pending the finalisation of the appeal proceedings.
But she voiced her concern as to how this case was handled by correctional services, who simply turned up at Rapholo’s house after all these years.
“This is to say the least, not only reprehensible, but immensely concerning. If they turned him away, how many other convicted criminals are simply turned away from prisons as the officials ‘have not received their papers.’ How many have taken advantage of this and disappeared,” the judge asked.
She said had he served his sentence then, he would have continued with his life now. “Instead, thanks to the shoddy way his case was handled, his life has been turned upside down.”
The judge concluded that her order must not be seen to be carte blanche for all matters of this nature, as each case is unique.
Pretoria News