Admin
20 Oct, 2025
AGSA’s findings: South Africa’s parole system betrays its constitutional duty
Media Statement by Thandi Nontenja, MP and UDEMWO Secretary General The United Democratic Movement Women’s Organisation (UDEMWO) welcomes the recent findings of the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) on the Department of Correctional Services, which expose deep and long-standing weaknesses in the country’s parole system. For years, UDEMWO has warned that South Africa’s parole regime places the lives of women, children and communities in danger. The AGSA report confirms what victims have known all along: the system no longer serves justice. It is failing its constitutional and moral duty to protect citizens and to uphold the rule of law. According to the AGSA, offenders whose parole was previously revoked are still being considered for release on new sentences. The report also shows that more than a third of inmates are remand detainees who receive no meaningful rehabilitation, while many convicted offenders, including those found guilty of sexual offences, do not receive the mandatory psychological services required by law. The audit further revealed that the Department’s Integrated Inmate Management System lacks basic integrity, with incomplete records and missing identifiers that make it impossible to track offenders properly or to assess their risk before release. This negligence has deadly consequences. When a system allows violent offenders to walk free without proper preparation, supervision or rehabilitation, it fails the victims who continue to live with trauma and fear. UDEMWO shares the anguish of families whose loved ones became victims of a system that released danger back into their communities UDEMWO calls for immediate and decisive action from the Department of Correctional Services and Parliament: 1. Victims must be placed at the centre of parole decisions, and their safety must carry more weight than administrative convenience. 2. Risk assessments must be strengthened to ensure that offenders with a history of violence or parole revocation are not released without thorough multidisciplinary review. 3. Data systems must be repaired and regular reports on parole approvals, reoffending and violations must be tabled in Parliament and made available to the public. 4. Offenders should only become eligible for parole once they have completed meaningful rehabilitation and demonstrated readiness to reintegrate into society. 5. Parliament must hold parole boards accountable for negligent decisions and ensure that consequences follow where released offenders commit serious crimes. Each act of violence committed by a parolee is not an isolated incident but a symptom of a system that has lost its moral compass. Justice cannot end at sentencing; it must extend to ensuring that rehabilitation is real, that victims are respected and that communities are safe. Communities also have a duty to support survivors, report crime and break the silence that protects perpetrators. Real reform will require collective responsibility from government, society and every institution tasked with protecting the vulnerable. Until the parole system is rebuilt on principles of accountability, transparency and compassion for victims, it will remain a danger to the very people it was meant to protect. UDEMWO will continue to speak for those whose voices are ignored and to demand a justice system that honours both the Constitution and the sanctity of human life.
Admin
04 Oct, 2025
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.
