Reform parole, protect victims: UDEMWO’s call for action
Media Statement by Thandi Nontenja, MP and UDEMWO Secretary General
The United Democratic Movement Women’s Organisation (UDEMWO) has consistently raised the alarm about South Africa’s broken parole system. Time and again, we have argued that the safety of women, children, and communities cannot be compromised by releasing offenders who remain a clear danger to society.
Recent figures provided in Parliament are nothing short of devastating. In just three years, 18 052 parolees reoffended including 493 murders and 624 rapes. The most common crimes committed while on parole were theft and housebreaking, compounding the daily fear ordinary families already live with. Between 2022 and 2025, a staggering 46 627 inmates were released on parole, yet parole violations reached over 28 000 in five years, mostly due to reoffending.
These are not just numbers, they represent destroyed lives, families left in pain, and communities stripped of their sense of safety.
We note that Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald convened the National Parole Review Summit in September 2025, where he committed to reforms that place public safety and victim justice at the centre of parole decisions. He acknowledged the shocking reality that parole must never be used as a tool simply to ease overcrowding in prisons, and that only those genuinely rehabilitated and posing no risk to the public should be considered.
UDEMWO welcomes this shift in tone, but we stress that words and summits are not enough.
What is needed is decisive, transparent reform that prioritises:
1. The Department of Correctional Services and parole boards must ensure that the voices and safety of victims and their families weigh heavily in all parole decisions.
2. Parliament and the Ministry of Justice must hold parole boards accountable when offenders they release commit violent crimes.
3. Offenders must demonstrate readiness for parole through meaningful participation in skills training, education, and reintegration programmes under the supervision of the Department of Correctional Services.
4. The Department of Correctional Services must publish regular reports on parole approvals, reoffending, and violations, and these reports must be tabled before Parliament for public scrutiny.
The South African public is tired of empty promises. Every rape, every murder committed by someone released too soon, is a failure of the system and an insult to victims. UDEMWO will continue to speak out until a parole system exists that truly protects the living while respecting the memory of those we have lost.
Communities must also take responsibility by reporting such crimes, rather than concealing them due to stigma, fear, or misplaced loyalty.
