Johannesburg - Reports that the medical parole board has recommended Clive Derby-Lewis be released are “ill-informed”, the Young Communist League of SA said on Tuesday.
“The YCLSA condemns in the strongest terms the attempts to run a public campaign by both Gaye Derby-Lewis and an ill-informed section of the media on the basis of perceived leaked recommendations of the medical parole board,” spokesman Khaya Xaba said in a statement.
“The intention of the campaign is to turn a recommendation into a binding decision of the (justice) minister and overlook conditions beyond the medical issue that Derby-Lewis has to fulfil before he is considered for parole by the minister.”
Xaba said the YCLSA remained opposed to Derby-Lewis's release.
The organisation intended making written submissions to President Jacob Zuma and Justice Minister Michael Masutha.
Derby-Lewis was jailed for his role in the murder, on April 10, 1993, of SA Communist Party general secretary Chris Hani.
Earlier on Tuesday, Derby-Lewis's wife Gaye said the medical parole board had recommended he be released.
“I do not know how to feel. It has happened four times before and each time it was blocked by the government. I do not know if the minister is going to release him,” she said.
However, Masutha's office said the minister had not been informed about the parole board's recommendation.
Masutha would announce his decision regarding Derby-Lewis, Ferdi Barnard, and Eugene de Kock, on Friday, his spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said.
Sapa