Fraud convict Tony Yengeni — the former African National Congress chief whip — would be released on weekend parole, the Department of Correctional Services said on Friday.
Department spokesperson Manelisi Wolela said 80 to 90 offenders, who have received a date for release into a community corrections programme from the parole board, are released on weekend parole each month.
”These legal, procedural and operational interventions seek to ensure the maintenance and rebuilding of familial relations that are critical for effective social re-integration of offenders on their release,” he said.
A few offenders per prison are released each weekend, with 22 prisoners from the Western Cape benefiting this month.
Yengeni and two fellow inmates, Wynand Du Toit and Jan Conradie, can spend a weekend away from the Malmesbury prison.
This is allowed under Section 44 of the Correctional Services Act, which allows a prisoner to leave temporarily for the purpose of ”preparation for release or any other reason related to the successful re-integration of the prisoner into the community”.
A source in the Department of Correctional Services said on Friday that the Malmesbury prison parole board has set January 15 as the date for Yengeni’s release.
However, departmental spokesperson Luphumzo Kebeni said Yengeni has merely been interviewed by the prison’s case-management committee, which recommended that Yengeni be freed early next year.
”That has not been approved or finalised because that has still to be endorsed by the parole board,” he said.
He said parole boards, chaired by community members, are independent of the department, and do not always accept case-management committee recommendations.
Yengeni was seen off by senior ANC colleagues when he reported to Pollsmoor prison on August 24 this year to begin his sentence.
Within hours he was transferred to Malmesbury, a relatively modern and uncrowded prison about 60km north of Cape Town.
In 2003 he was sentenced to four years in jail after being convicted of fraud related to his acceptance of a discount on a luxury vehicle from one of the bidders in the multibillion-rand arms deal. – Sapa