Our criminal justice system must always guard against being a theatre for retribution, writes Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya.
Parole decisions are seldom, if ever, received with unanimity. The decision to release hip-hop artist Molemo Maarohanye, alias Jub Jub and his accomplice Themba Tshabalala after serving four years of their eight-year sentences was never going to be an exception.
While some of the families of the children killed when Maarohanye and Tshabalala went on a drug-inspired car race on the streets of Soweto have accepted their release on parole, it is natural that other families will feel that it is a grave injustice. There was already unhappiness that their convictions were changed from murder to culpable homicide and the sentences reduced from 20 years to eight.
Either way, it is important to recall that the purpose of sentencing in South African law is to look at the crime itself, specifically the seriousness thereof, the personal circumstances of the convicted person and what is in the public interest.
Prisoners in South Africa are eligible for parole after serving a third of their jail term.
All that is cold comfort for the families of the youngsters whose lives were cut short by Maarohanye and Tshabalala’s recklessness and foolishness. Whether the technical term for it is murder or culpable homicide, fact is that the families will never see their loved ones again.
The point to be made, therefore, is that feelings on both sides of the debate are equally valid.
To say that Maarohanye and Tshabalala should get parole, provided they satisfy all the requirements for the dispensation, must not be read as negating the real feelings of hurt and pain by their victims and their families. The two scenarios are not mutually exclusive.
Our criminal justice system must always guard against being a theatre for retribution but rather protect the good mores of our society and punish - within the bounds of our humaneness - those who seek to disturb this.
We hope that the perpetrators of this sorry act have learned their lesson and will straighten their ways, just as much as we hope that the families of the youngsters killed and injured will find, or come closer to finding, closure and peace.