Derby-Lewis: Was Balfour drunk?

2008-11-18 22:45

Pretoria - Clive Derby-Lewis said on Tuesday that Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour must have been "drunk" when he told Derby-Lewis to "go to hell".

"There is no other explanation for the outrageous and illegal outburst by the minister," said Derby-Lewis in a statement. The 72-year-old is serving a life sentence for the murder of SACP leader Chris Hani.

On Friday, Balfour said: "I will tell you, you will not go out (of prison) Clive Derby-Lewis... you can go to hell. You're not going to go out until you do your time, it's as simple as that."

"For Balfour's information, I have served my time and the Parole Board would not have recommended my parole if I had not served my time," said Derby-Lewis.

Derby-Lewis' attorney Marius Coertze said that he was "quite shocked and disappointed" by the minister's utterances.

"It is clear that he is biased, we cannot expect to be treated fairly," he said Coertze.

Parole date still to be set

The attorney also said that the date for a parole application by Derby-Lewis is still to be set.

Coertze said the matter was still to be put back on the "urgent" court roll of the Pretoria High Court.

"We don't have a fixed date, we're looking at month-end to have the matter heard," said Coertze.

In October the court postponed the matter to November to allow other parties - the Hani family and the National Parole Board - to be joined as co-respondents in the matter. So far, he had not received any word from any of the parties, he said.

Coertze added that his client had put in an application to the court to get the Department of Correctional Services to make "certain documents" relating to his parole application available to him.

One of the documents was one by the local parole board recommending the 72-year-old for parole.

"What was strange in the court papers was that the department said they were not aware of this recommendation. However, we have it in black and white [that the recommendation had been made]," said the attorney.

The documents were delivered to Coertze last Friday.

Derby-Lewis who so far has served 15 years of his sentence was convicted along with Janusz Walus of Hani's assassination on April 10 1993.

In 1995 their death sentences were changed to life imprisonment.

- SAPA