Norman Simons was charged with 22 murders but only convicted of kidnapping and killing a 10-year-old in Mitchells Plain
The department of correctional services on Friday confirmed the imminent release of Norman “Avzal” Simons, dubbed the “Station Strangler”, who has been granted parole 28 years after he was handed a life sentence in 1995.
Although charged with 22 murders, Simons was only found guilty of kidnapping and murdering 10-year-old Elroy van Rooyen in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town.
Simons’s parole came to light earlier this week, but the department’s Western Cape spokesperson Candice van Reenen would not confirm or deny it at the time, telling the Mail & Guardian: “We are interacting with the victims and community and will therefore not make any comment on the matter at this stage.”
On Friday, the national spokesperson for correctional services Singabakho Nxumalo confirmed Simons was set to be released, adding in a statement: “Parole consideration has become emotive as some question its application and the harm endured by the victims of crime. Avzal Simons was considered for parole placement, in compliance with the Correctional Services Act (111 of 1998).”
Nxumalo said the department would engage with the Mitchells Plain community on the parole placement and “the subsequent role [the residents] play within the community corrections system and to the victims at large”.
The Western Cape member of the executive committee for mobility, constituency head of Mitchells Plain, Ricardo Mackenzie had not been formally told about Simons’ parole. Councillor Goawa Timm and Elton-Enrique Jansen, sub-councillor for Mitchells Plain, were also unaware of the imminent release.
Abie Isaacs, the chairperson of the Cape Flats Safety Forum, who learned about Simons’s release through other sources, said the forum held the view that Simons “has done his time in the correctional facility” and hoped that the state would maintain the parole conditions set out for him.
Norman Jantjies, chairman of the community policing forum — one of the structures consulted by correctional services over the past two weeks — urged residents “to be tolerant but, at the same time, to be vigilant – like they should be at all times in Mitchells Plain”.
“But we are also asking Norman to also reach out to the community and strive to be a valuable member of society,” Jantjies added.
He recalled the years between 1986 and 1994 when the Mitchells Plain community was searching for shallow graves. The bodies of about 22 boys aged under 13 years were found and the possibility of a serial killer in the area terrified residents.
However, Simons was only found guilty of kidnapping and murdering Elroy while the other murders remain unresolved.
Jantjies had several interactions with Simons before and after his arrest. Heading the nonprofit National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders (Nicro) in Mitchells Plain at the time the multiple murders took place, Jantjies had Xhosa lessons with Simons.
The language programme formed part of an initiative to create cohesion in the community before democracy in 1994. Jantjies can remember noticing during one Xhosa lesson that he had a scar on his face. Simons was arrested two days later.
Jantjies only encountered Simons again after he was sentenced to life. Computers were still relatively new at the time and Simons was teaching prison wardens computer skills.
“We understand he committed serious crimes, but justice is justice, he served his time,” Jantjies said, while acknowledging the fact that there will be distrust from the community, which faces fear and trauma every day.
“Every day murderers are released in our midst. We have serial murderers, gang leaders and rapists who are released back into our community daily,” he said. Between 6 and 11 July, four people were murdered in the area.
The department of correctional services is due to engage with Mitchells Plain residents on Sunday, before Simons’s release, which is expected later this month.