Cape Town - Former Hard Livings gang boss Rashied Staggie is again eyeing freedom, after the Pollsmoor parole board decided that he will be released on day parole from March 17, with a view to going on full parole from September 18.
This was confirmed yesterday by the Correctional Services Department, which said in a statement that Staggie’s full parole would end on September 18, 2017.
Staggie was ordered back to Pollsmoor on December 4, after enjoying day parole from September last year, apparently because he joined new political party the Patriotic Alliance. Reports earlier this year, however, quoted police sources as saying party members had taken Staggie to the home of a known Mitchells Plain gang boss.
Staggie was said to have admitted to the parole board that he had been in Mitchells Plain.
In 2003, Staggie was sentenced to 15 years in prison for kidnapping and rape, and in 2004 he received a further 13 years for gun theft from a police armoury. The sentences ran concurrently and he spent more than a decade behind bars before his release on day parole.
At the time that Staggie’s day parole was revoked, Correctional Services said he had violated his parole conditions, and met members of gangs.
Police said then that he had made at least three visits to Mitchells Plain addresses. Staggie was being tracked with an electronic tag. They found drugs at these locations.
Last month Staggie’s wife,
Rashieda, told the press that her husband had broken ties with the Patriotic Alliance, launched by ex-convict Gayton McKenzie and businessman Kenny Kunene. She said he had chosen to focus on his family.
Yesterday, Correctional Services said that in terms of his latest parole conditions, Staggie would be allowed to leave the prison at 6am “for work and to build on his family relations”. He has to report back daily at 7.30pm. Not complying with the terms would be treated as an “escape”.
Other conditions include that he may not commit a crime or abuse alcohol, may not have a dangerous weapon or leave the Cape Town magisterial district. He also may have no contact with gangsters and may not enter Manenberg, and will be electronically monitored. - Weekend Argus