Cape Town -
Former Hard Livings gang leader Rashied Staggie will have to find his own job before being released on day parole for a second time, the Correctional Services Department said on Tuesday.
Staggie was to return to his job as general worker at Unkonwaba Investments - managed by Ivan Waldeck, a gangster-turned-pastor at a Bellville South premises used as a church and gangster rehabilitation centre. Staggie had worked there before his initial day parole had been revoked.
On Tuesday, Correctional Services Department spokesman Manelisi Wolela said Staggie had not yet been released on day parole because Waldeck’s company was not approved by the Pollsmoor Prison Parole and Supervision Board.
“The pastor who indicated to the parole board that he is to give Mr Staggie a job was not approved. The credentials of the employment was not sufficient and it was found that Mr Staggie had violated his parole conditions while working for Waldeck,” he said.
Asked how Staggie was supposed to find a job while in custody, Wolela said: “We are not responsible to find him a job. He should find his own job with the help of his family.”
Waldeck was not available for comment on Tuesday and did not respond to voice or text messages.
Staggie, 56, was expected to be released from Pollsmoor Prison on Tuesday to start his second go at day parole.
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had initially been granted day parole on September 23, two-thirds into a 15-year jail sentence for rape, but this had been revoked by the department on December 5 as he had broken his parole conditions.
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.
As one 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.
A decade ago, Staggie was found guilty of giving orders for 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.
Cape Times