Cape Town - Former Hard Livings gang leader Rashied Staggie phoned his wife to find out what was happening as he was being transported to Pollsmoor Prison on Thursday after his parole was revoked, his legal representative said. Staggie was released on day parole on September 23, but this was withdrawn on Thursday.
Hours after the Correctional Services Department announced that Staggie was back behind bars, his advocate, Janos Mihalik, told the Cape Times: “It’s terrible, his parole was revoked without even telling him why.”
Mihalik was keeping in touch with Staggie’s wife, Rashieda, to see if they could get to the bottom of the decision.
While Correctional Services did not give reasons for revoking Staggie’s parole on Thursday, the Patriotic Alliance, the party Staggie signed up with on Sunday and which is headed by ex-convicts Gayton McKenzie and Kenny Kunene, said it was apparently over gang links.
“It is alleged that Mr Staggie violated a parole condition stipulating that he not associate with known gangsters.
“There is no proof of this as it is a patently false assertion. None of his parole conditions have been violated,” the PA said.
Staggie, who a decade ago was convicted of kidnapping and ordering the gang-rape (while he watched) of a Manenberg teenager he accused of working for the police, was on Thursday fetched at his workplace in Bellville South.
Ivan Waldeck, a gangster-turned-pastor who had employed Staggie at a premises used as a church and gangster rehabilitation centre, confirmed officials picked up Staggie from there.
“We were not informed of what was happening,” he said.
Waldeck said Staggie had arrived for work as usual on Thursday.
“I spoke to him. He said that (on Wednesday) night some officers spoke to him for a while about the Patriotic Alliance,” he said.
Waldeck had not asked anything about this or found it unusual.
He planned to meet Correctional Services officials on Friday.
The Correctional Services Department said that from Bellville South, Staggie had then been taken to Pollsmoor Prison where he was incarcerated.
“We believe he violated his parole conditions,” a department statement said.
The statement said the matter was being investigated and Staggie would have to appear before a case management committee and correctional supervision and parole board.
Simphiwe Xako, regional spokesman for the department, said it was too soon to disclose the reasons behind revoking Staggie’s parole as the matter was under investigation.
Cape Times