Absconding parolees will be returned to prison – Thobakgale

At least 10 absconding parolees in Tsakane on the East Rand could potentially see themselves back in prison to finish serving their sentences.

On Saturday night, the department of correctional services visited 40 homes during an unannounced operation to monitor parolees in the area.

According to the department’s spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo, officials found 22 parolees at home while 17 were not at home. One was at work. “The total number of absconders earmarked for tracing [is] 10,” he said.

He said one absconder was re-arrested before the operation started.

However, during the operation, no arrests were made, “only follow-up information gathered, which will be used to further investigate the whereabouts of those at large with assistance from the tracking teams of SAPS, next-of-kin and other sources to bring them to book”.

Nxumalo said there were currently 53,394 parolees and probationers across the country, and only 2% of them had failed to comply with their parole conditions.

During the operation, officials were divided into three groups to visit the homes.

Officials were seen searching for the parolees, even under the beds, in vehicles in the yard and backrooms as curious neighbours watched.

In one of the houses, a parent explained to the officials that the parolee was not at home and had to accompany them to another residents, but the parolee was not found there.

The national commissioner of correctional services, Makgothi Thobakgale, said they had been keeping a close watch in Tsakane after an absconding parolee killed two Boksburg community corrections officials in the area in 2022.  

At the time, the officials were tracing an absconded parolee at Extension 7, Langaville, when they were shot dead.

Thobakgale said the man was currently serving two life sentences behind bars.

“This is the beginning of the campaign to clean this township of absconders and that is why I am here to ensure that we register the progress that we need to register. We are looking for criminals that have evaded the watchful eyes of our parole officers,” he told the Sowetan.

He said some of the corrections officers had experienced difficulties in tracing the parolees at the addresses they provided.

“The ones that we are searching for tonight [Saturday], we are [certain] that they do not want to comply, they have decided that they will go back to a life of being criminals and they have broken the rules, there is no other interaction with them except to re-arrest them and take them back to our facilities where they will finish their sentences,” he said.

chabalalaj@sowetan.co.za

SowetanLIVE