The Democratic Alliance (DA) has appealed against the Department of Correctional Services’ refusal to allow the party access to Tony Yengeni’s parole or correctional supervision conditions.
Under access-to-information laws, the department now has 10 working days to reply, either by granting the request or refusing it for a second time, DA spokesperson James Selfe said on Tuesday.
The party’s original request was rejected last week.
”First and foremost, the DA is appealing this decision because the department denied access to information which the DA did not request.
”The DA requested Yengeni’s parole and correctional supervision conditions, and [the department] denied a request for Yengeni’s sentencing,” he said in a statement.
Secondly, the request should be easily granted as the information resides in one file in Cape Town.
Selfe said the department’s letter of refusal lacks information stipulated in the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
”This is a shocking omission, as the appeal documents are difficult to source, despite the insistence that they should be on every public body’s website, and the process of appeal is not easy.
”In this manner, too, the [department] is making access to information more difficult,” he said.
Yengeni, a former African National Congress chief whip, was convicted in 2003 of defrauding Parliament by failing to disclose a 47% discount on a luxury 4×4 Mercedes-Benz.
He lost an appeal against his four-year sentence, but spent only a few months in Malmesbury Prison from August last year to early January this year.
Allegations of preferential treatment have dogged Yengeni in and out of prison. — Sapa