Pretoria - Thursday was not Frikkie du Preez’s day. His court bid for parole was turned down and he was slapped with a hefty legal bill. Judge Moses Mavundla, of the Gauteng Provincial Division of the High Court sitting in Pretoria, ruled the Correctional Services Department was within its rights when it revoked Du Preez’s parole.
“The nature and gravity of the applicant’s conduct in… the video was very serious. It undermined the general authority of Correctional Services and demonstrated the prisoner was not sufficiently rehabilitated to be admitted to parole.”
Judge Mavundla said the video – showing Du Preez and Christoff Becker allegedly partying in their cell shortly before being freed on parole – received widespread media coverage. The public would lose confidence in the administration of correctional services and justice if the pair’s conduct was not addressed by the authorities, the judge said.
Du Preez was part of a gang of four sentenced to 12 years in jail in 2005 for killing a homeless man. They were schoolboys at the time.
Becker were the last of the gang freed on parole in February. But their freedom was short-lived as a video of a party they allegedly held in Becker’s cell, was posted on YouTube. The pair’s parole was revoked five days later and they have been in prison ever since.
Both have made several unsuccessful attempts to have their parole reinstated.
Becker’s high court bid partially succeeded last week, when the court ordered a newly constituted parole board to reconsider his release on parole within 14 days.
Du Preez had already been down this route, when the court earlier ordered a newly constituted parole board take a second look at perhaps reinstating his parole. The new board turned down his application.
This prompted Du Preez to turn to Judge Mavundla, asking for the court to order his release and not to leave it in the hands of the department. This application was on Thursday turned down.
The judge said the court did not have the statutory powers to order his release – this was a decision of the parole board. On the merits, he could also not find any fault with the board’s refusal to grant further parole. “A parolee remains at all times a sentenced prisoner and has no right to parole. The national commissioner has wide discretion in deciding whether to release a sentenced person on parole or to revoke parole,” he said.
Pretoria News