The proposed release of 62 former death-row prison inmates is outrageous, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) spokesperson Sybil Seaton said on Thursday.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday that eight prisoners who were formerly on death row will be freed this month.
The prisoners are part of a group of 62, who have served their mandatory 20-year prison term.
They were given an alternative life-term imprisonment after the death penalty was abolished in 1995.
On Thursday, Seaton said she was dismayed and concerned at the news.
”This is absolutely outrageous. The IFP feels that it is petty criminals, especially juveniles, who should be considered for release, not people who are in prison serving life sentences for serious crimes.”
This came shortly after Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour announced last year he was considering early parole for 300 lifers in an attempt to curb overcrowding in prisons.
”The 300 prisoners will hardly make a dent in the overcrowding crisis South Africa is currently facing,” Seaton said.
”There’s clearly a serious management problem here. As crime spirals out of control in our country we need more prisons, but the Department of Correctional Services is failing in this important task.
”Last year, they neglected to use the allocated money that was given to them to build new prisons, which is totally unacceptable.”
Seaton suggested that if Balfour and his colleagues ”are so desperate to ease the overcrowding problem”, they should start by knocking on the door of Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla, who in the past three years has done nothing to review the cases of 384 IFP political prisoners who had applied for presidential pardons.
”If she could start on that anytime soon, maybe Minister Balfour might have a few more prisoners he can set free in 2007,” Seaton said. — Sapa