Cape Town - Since the age of 18, jewel thief Hilton Erasmus says the last seven months are the longest he has been free.
The 61-year-old is currently out on parole, and says more than 40 years in and out of prison has cost him relationships with women, friends and family.
Today the pensioner has no wife or kids and barely knows his relatives.
Now he wants to warn youngsters against getting involved in crime and ending up like him.
Hilton told the Daily Voice: “I took life as a joke and now I am spyt (regretful). I just went on and on doing things. Children need to listen to what their mothers and fathers say.
“Prison life is tough and it will change you.”
Erasmus’s life of crime began in the early 70s. He became an accomplished thief, breaking into homes to steal jewels and valuables across the Cape as far as Stellenbosch.
He rattles off the dates he was locked up, starting back in 1972 up until earlier this year when he was released on parole.
“This is my longest time on the outside since 1972,” he said. “I have been out for seven months now.
“Before, I would only be out two weeks or a month or two, then I’m back inside again.
“I served 40 years inside and did my time. I have no children because I have always been inside prison. My whole straf (jail term) is until 2022.
“Like only now I am getting to know my relatives, my nephews and nieces.”
His sister, Kulsum Williams, 63, said prison life robbed her brother of a family life.
Williams said: “He is only finding out now who his nephews and nieces are. Hy het niks kinders nie ( He has no children).
“We used to visit him from time to time, we are three siblings. He is now a pensioner and is not a danger to anyone.”
Erasmus said that despite being free, he still feels like a caged animal because he has to wear an ankle “bracelet” that tracks his movements.
With tears in his eyes, Erasmus said he has become a pensioner who wants to enjoy his life with relatives, but is chained like a dog.
“I am not a gangster, a murderer or a rapist, they don’t place this tracker on killers and rapists,” he added.
Erasmus is only allowed to roam three metres from outside of his sister’s home.
Erasmus said he now has to live with a lifetime of regrets, because as a youth he didn’t take his actions seriously or care that it would affect his future.
“I do not look for trouble from anyone anymore,” he said. “I just walk to my friends who are also pensioners and I go and draw my pension.”
Erasmus is due to be released from correctional supervision on January 1, 2022.
He will be 68 years old.
This is Erasmus’s rap sheet, in his own words:
* In 1972 I got three months for pickpocketing and in 1973, I got six months again for housebreaking and ses houe (six lashes).
* In 1974 I got another 12 months after I stole someone’s purse.
* In 1975 I got two years imprisonment for theft.
* In 1976, I came out and in six weeks I went back again for housebreaking.
* In 1977, I got between 5 to 8 years for housebreaking.
* I came out in 1981 and I got amnesty but in 1982 I was arrested again for housebreaking in Stellenbosch, I got five years.
* In July 1986 I was back for housebreaking.
* In August 1986 I got bail and I was back inside September again when I broke my bail.
* In October that same year I received 9 to 15 years for housebreaking in Wellington.
* Then I robbed someone in the gat (prison holding cells) at Paarl Regional Court and when the warden came down, I hit him in the neck and they found the money on me. I got 9 to 15 years for that.
* I came out in 1995 in May, and in June I was back inside for housebreaking in Brackenfell.
* Then I came out in 2006 in November and January I was back inside.
* I came out again in February this year.
Daily Voice