Pretoria -
On Monday, after nearly two years of freedom, two of the “Waterkloof Four”, found guilty of killing a homeless man when they were in their teens, are due back in jail. But they may still make a last-ditch attempt to retain their freedom.
Reinach Tiedt and Gert van Schalkwyk are due to report back to Zonderwater Prison outside Cullinan after almost two years’ house arrest. But, according to their lawyer Jenny Brewis, they may file an urgent petition on Monday to keep them out of jail.
They had each served just under three and a half years in jail after they, with Christoff Becker and Frikkie du Preez, were sentenced to 12 years in prison for murdering the unidentified man in a park in Pretoria in 2001. At the time, they were 16.
Brewis said Tiedt and van Schalkwyk “remained positive” and even if they did go back to jail, they might only spend five months behind bars before qualifying for parole.
James Smalberger, chief deputy commissioner at Correctional Services, said by February they would have served half of their sentences, having benefited from a six-month general remission.
Smalberger said the time they had spent out of jail was viewed as time served too, as they were under correctional supervision.
Tiedt and Van Schalkwyk started serving their sentences in 2008. A Pretoria magistrate converted their sentences to correctional supervision in December 2011 after an application by the parole board.
Correctional Services appealed against the decision and the high court ruled in June that the two were not entitled to parole as more than five years of their sentence remained.
Pretoria News