Mark Scott-Crossley, one of the men who threw a worker’s body to lions in Hoedspruit in 2004, was released on parole on Thursday.
Correctional services coordinator for Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the North West Sarie Peens said Scott-Crossley was moved on Thursday morning from a correctional facility in Barberton, where he was serving his sentence, to Bushbuckridge.
”At about 11am, Scott-Crossley was admitted at a correctional services reintegration office at Bushbuckridge. His parole conditions were read to him. He is now being placed under strict conditions on parole until completion of his sentence.”
Scott-Crossley’s family was at the reintegration office to welcome him.
”I presume he was then taken home because his family was there,” Peens said.
Late in 2005 Scott-Crossley was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Phalaborwa Circuit Court for throwing former employee Nelson Chisale to the lions.
On September 28 2007 the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein set aside Scott-Crossley’s murder conviction for the death of Chisale. It substituted five years’ imprisonment, on the lesser offence of being an accessory after the fact, for his life sentence.
The court found the prosecution had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Chisale was alive when he was thrown into the enclosure. The judges found the panga wounds inflicted on Chisale by Scott-Crossley’s co-accused (Doctor Mathebula and Simon Mathebula), when he was not present, could reasonably have caused the deceased’s death before he was transported to the lion park.
The court then ruled that Scott-Crossley would serve the remainder of his sentence for the lesser offence backdated to September 30 2005.
The case made headlines across the world when the murder occurred in January 2004.
Chisale’s skull and some gnawed bones were all that remained after the body was thrown to three white lions at the Mokwalo lion-breeding project.
Scott-Crossley had recently fired Chisale from his construction business at the Engedi game farm. Chisale had been helping to build a lodge on the farm when he was fired. He was killed when he returned to collect some of his belongings before being thrown to the lions.
Outrage
The North West Congress of South African Trade Unions said it was ”totally” against Scott-Crossley’s release.
Cosatu called for members of civil society to petition the Department of Justice, the Department of Correctional Services and the Human Rights Commission for their ”poor service”.
The South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights (SAPOHR) was also angered by the release, and said it could not go unchallenged.
SAPOHR president Miles Bhudu called for the release of all non-violent first-time offenders, those who had served more than half of their sentence, prisoners older than 60, and the terminally ill.
The organisation also called for parents with dependants to be considered for immediate release.
”If our demands are not met within seven days, we shall call on all SAPOHR members, followers, supporters and sympathisers to embark on rolling mass action in prisons countrywide,” said Bhudu.
The Young Communist League said it was ”deeply disturbed and outraged” by the release.
The parole of the ”monstrous killer” should be condemned by all South Africans, the league said.
”We respect the rule of law, but it is disgusting that there is a continued tendency or a systematic abortion of justice on matters related to the murder of black workers in the country.
”This reinforces our long-held belief that the rule of law in this country favours the rich, particularly whites and regards the lives of black workers as shallow and cheap.”
While incarcerated, Scott-Crossley was also charged with assaulting a fellow inmate, Jacobus Cordier (40), at the Barberton maximum security prison on December 9 2006.
The Barberton Magistrate’s Court found him guilty of assault and sentenced him to a fine of R4Â 000 or two years’ imprisonment on February 21 this year. He paid the fine.
Scott-Crossley pleaded not guilty to the assault, saying he acted in self-defence when Cordier threatened him with a sharpened spoon. — Sapa