Cape Town - Fetching coffees, mopping up spills and running errands will be some of the things convicted former gang boss Rashied Staggie will do over the next six months.
The gangster’s lawyer Janos Mahalik confirmed the 57-year-old was set to start as a general worker at Cape Town firm, Ukonwaba Investments, on Monday.
This will mark the end of a week-long job hunt that has seen the former Hard Livings gang leader sitting in his cell at Pollsmoor Prison since he was released on day parole last Monday.
Staggie has served 10 years of a 15-year sentence for ordering the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl and later for a string of robberies. He qualified for day parole on May 21 in front of a parole board in Worcester.
The conditions of his parole require Staggie to have a job, and he will only be allowed to leave the Tokai prison during the day to work before returning at night.
Up until the end of last week, Staggie spent all his time at the “more relaxed” day parole facility at Pollsmoor.
But his luck changed on Friday when he was permitted to leave the prison to attend a job interview at Ukonwaba Investments.
The company, which is based in Cape Town, belongs to gangster-turned-pastor Ivan Waldeck - a close friend of Staggie and his family. “He came in here on Friday, and we chatted with him and Correctional Services for over an hour,” said Waldeck.
The eight-year-old firm is described online as being involved in trading and investments. Waldeck added it also served as a construction company. But Staggie would not be crunching numbers or laying bricks, and was instead set to start as a general worker.His duties would include cleaning, running errands and helping his co-workers, said Waldeck.
“Like any other employee, he will be able to work his way up… He’s delighted to finally have a job, but also frustrated that it took so long to find one, and it’s not exactly the job he would have wanted.”
Staggie’s aim, reportedly, is to work as a motivational speaker, counselling recovering drug addicts and child gangsters.
His lawyer said he was not permitted to leave prison to visit his family on Sunday, as was previously planned.
“His wife and kids had to visit him in jail today, which was just another disappointment for them,” Mahalik said on Sunday.
The Department of Correctional Services was not available for comment at the time of going to print.
Cape Argus