Johannesburg - Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha has until July 10 to make a decision on whether former apartheid-era police colonel Eugene de Kock should be granted parole.
“The minister has not reached a decision on the request for parole by Mr Eugene de Kock,” his spokesman Lawrence Ngoveni said on Monday.
“He will make a pronouncement within the 30 days period set by the court.”
Ngoveni said the 30 day period did not include weekends and holidays.
De Kock, a former police death squad commander, approached the High Court in Pretoria last month to force Masutha to make a decision on his parole.
De Kock was in charge of a police “death squad” at Vlakplaas outside Pretoria, and was arrested in mid-1994. He was convicted and sentenced in the High Court in Pretoria in 1996.
He was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment for two murders and to a further 212 years' imprisonment on a range of other charges, including conspiracy to commit murder, culpable homicide, kidnapping, assault, and fraud.
Many of his former colleagues who committed murder under his command testified in return for indemnity from prosecution.
De Kock, nicknamed “Prime Evil”, has spent two decades in prison.
Last month, Judge Thokozile Masipa granted an order giving Masutha 30 days to decide on De Kock's parole bid.
The National Council for Correctional Services made a recommendation about De Kock's parole in November last year.
The recommendation was sent to then minister S'bu Ndebele, but when he failed to act, De Kock approached the high court to force him to do so. - Sapa