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DA wants Yengeni's parole rules
07/03/2007 13:39 - (SA)
Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance has challenged the correctional services department to truly fulfil its mandate of openness and transparency by revealing former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni's parole conditions.
The DA has, by way of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, officially requested Yengeni's parole and/or correctional supervision conditions from the department, DA spokesperson James Selfe said on Wednesday.
In terms of the act, the department has 30 days to respond.
Selfe said the department had for many years insisted that once an individual was released under correctional supervision, the community had a societal responsibility to assist in the person's reintegration.
However, to do so, the community had to know the conditions of the individual's correctional supervision or parole, so as to know what the individual was entitled to or obliged to do.
"We have reason to believe that Mr Yengeni has not complied with his parole/correctional supervision conditions," Selfe said.
A letter to Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour on February 16, requesting details of Yengeni's parole, had so far failed to elicit a response from the department, and the DA was now "forced" to use the act to retrieve the information.
"This is a challenge to correctional services to truly fulfil their mandate of openness and transparency... [and to] live up to the promise to be accountable to the public of South Africa," Selfe said.
Yengeni was released from Malmesbury prison in January after serving only about four months of a four-year sentence for fraud.
- SAPA
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