How murderer Nkuna was paroled before his killing spree

A violent criminal who absconded from sentence and deemed high-risk, was granted parole and went on to commit a series of brutal murders while correctional services officials failed to monitor him adequately.

This lapse in the parole system is revealed in a damning report exposing negligence at multiple correctional facilities where Rassie Nkuna was incarcerated.

Nkuna is serving life terms for the 2022 murder of his girlfriend Pretty Mazibuko and her cop sister Marcia.

He is accused of killing at least six people, including Pretty and Marcia, while out on parole.

He is due to return to the Pretoria high court on Thursday, where he is standing trial for the double murder of couple Lucky and Sabeliwe Mogashoa.

He allegedly kidnapped the couple in March 2022, two months after he was placed on parole, and shot them in front of their minor children. It has since emerged that Sabeliwe was pregnant at the time.

According to the investigation report, which Sowetan has seen, Nkuna was released on parole on January 17 2022 despite having been identified as an absconder from the Praktiseer Community Corrections in Limpopo in February 2018. Nkuna was then serving a four-year sentence for possession of a firearm and ammunition at the time.

When he was released on parole by Mbombela Community Corrections in Mpumalanga, Nkuna was classified as a high-risk parolee, meaning he needed to be monitored eight times a month – calculated as four home visits, two office visits, one phone call and one work visit.

However, between January and April 2022, Nkuna’s monitoring record compiled by correctional services officials showed he was not at home on at least more than four occasions. The report said Nkuna was not monitored according to his risk classification.

“Parolee Rasie Hlabirwa Nkune [sic] failed to comply with his physical monitoring conditions and his violations were captured on the system starting from 2017/02/28,” read the report. “The investigation team noted notice of contravention of conditions dated 2017/03/09 from Praktiseer Community Corrections in the offender’s file that compelled parolee to report at their office.”

The report states that the monitoring record in Mbombela indicated Nkuna was not found at home in February 2022 and twice in March 2022. On April 25 2022, he was twice not found at home but appeared there later. On April 30 2022, he was again not found at home.

While out on parole, he killed Pretty and Marcia on May 15 2022. He pleaded guilty to the killings in 2023.

He was also charged along with four other men with the April 2022 murder of Hillary Gardee, the daughter of EFF deputy president Godrich Gardee. The charges were provisionally withdrawn in April 2023 after key state witnesses vanished.

Nkuna is also accused of murdering Nonkululeko Nkosi in August 2022, whom he allegedly immobilised with a taser before strangling her and driving off in her car. His trial is set to resume in October in Mpumalanga.

The decision to place Nkuna on parole was taken on December 15 2021 and, according to a correctional services report, the chairperson of the parole board said he was not aware that Nkuna had been classified as an absconder.

The report reveals that he was granted parole based on information that he has served his sentence and the only charge pending against him, the rape case, had been withdrawn. He was rearrested on August 11 2022 for a series of crimes. Mpumalanga police spokesperson Lt-Col Jabu Ndubane confirmed that police are investigating more than eight cases registered in Mbombela where Nkuna is implicated in rape, robbery and murder.

The Gardee family is suing the state, demanding R18m for allegedly failing to monitor Nkuna properly. In their civil claim, the family alleged that negligence by correctional services officials in supervising Nkuna resulted in their immense grief.

Sowetan understands that Gardee has approached the Nkosi and Sabeliwe families to help them also sue the state for negligence.

Nkosi’s family has expressed disappointment with the justice system that set Nkuna free and for failing to monitor him while he was on parole.

Correctional services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said: “Parole does not reduce the sentence imposed by the courts. It only affects the way in which the sentence will be served, which means part of the sentence may be served outside a correctional centre, under the supervision of officials from DCS, and subject to certain conditions.”

Joyce Mogashoa, the sister of one of Nkuna’s victims, Lucky, said the family discovered during Nkuna’s trial that he had been granted parole at the time of her brother’s murder.

“It is clear that he was not rehabilitated because he went out to commit crimes again,” she said.

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