DEPARTMENT of Correctional Services representative Russel Mamabolo has been fined R2000, or six months’ imprisonment, after telling a newspaper a judge had erred in granting bail to Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader Eugene Terre’Blanche. Pretoria High Court judge Johan Els found Mamabolo guilty of contempt of court, and suspended another six months in jail for three years. In making the statement, Mamabolo had not merely exercised his freedom of speech, the judge ruled. “This was a wrongful attack on me as judge and therefore on the judiciary and the administration of justice.” Els said that even if his order relating to the bail was incorrect, which it was not, the Correctional Services Department was obliged to comply with it. To openly state to the press that it intended not to comply, comprised contempt of court, he said. Correctional Services commissioner, Lulamile Mbete, later said the conviction was a “travesty of justice,” saying Els could not be both complainant and judge in the matter. The department would consider appealing the conviction and sentence, Mbete said.