Recidivism - the tendency of a convicted criminal to re-offend – continues to drive fear following the release of convicted child killer and notorious “Station Strangler” Norman Afzal Simons, after he spent 28 years in jail for the kidnapping and murder of 10-year-old Elroy van Rooyen in 1994.
While Simons will be under house arrest for the rest of his life – living with his cousin in Parow – a lack of trust in the justice system fills the community with doubts around the safety of their children, and whether or not he has been rehabilitated.
Commission for Gender Equality spokesperson, Javu Baloyi, said the community’s fears were justified, “looking at the statistics of parolees that re-offend”.
Examples of such incidents include the kidnapping, rape and murder of Tazné van Wyk, 8, by parolee Moyhdian Pangkaeker in 2020 and the rape and murder of Michaela Williams, 12, by parolee Steven Fortune in the same year.
Jakobus Petoors, who was also out on parole, was found guilty of kidnapping, rape and murder of 8-year-old Reagan Gertse in 2022.
“There is no guarantee the parolees are rehabilitated or not. Those who commit certain abuses commit again, there is no guarantee,” Baloyi said.
“Parolees are often repeat offenders. I agree with everyone else, even I am afraid of what might happen because the likelihood is very high.
“At the time parole is considered, we must look at the nature of the crime and punishment given.
“We must consider the souls lost; are we saying their lives were in vain?
We give mileage to the rapist or murderer, what about the souls lost and those that were violated? If we say gender-based violence is a second pandemic, why not look at the rights of parolees and curtail them?”
In 1995, Simons, a schoolteacher at the time, was found guilty of the murder and abduction of Elroy.
He was suspected of being responsible for the deaths of 22 boys whose bodies were discovered in shallow graves scattered around the Cape Flats in Cape Town between 1986 and 1994.
The victims were found face-down with their hands tied behind their backs, and evidence suggested that they had been subjected to sodomy.
Parow neighbourhood chairperson Stefan Carstens said the community was outraged about the house arrest in Parow.
“People are scared for their children, everybody is on high alert. There are a lot of children here, we have a primary school and a station not so highly used.
“Nobody knows where he stays. It is a good thing though, to reduce the risk of someone coming and stalking him, but everybody is walking around on eggshells because nobody knows what to expect,” Carstens said.
Behind their concerns sit the statistics that show about 555 serious crimes were committed by parolees in the first quarter of 2022/23 and 1 346 in the 2021/22 financial year.
There were also 1 239 crimes perpetrated by re-offenders between March 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021 with robbery, theft, housebreaking, murder and rape the most committed offences.
This was revealed by Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola in reply to a parliamentary question last year.
While the Department of Correctional Services did not respond to questions around what programmes Simons had participated in to aid in his parole being granted, the South African Sentenced and Awaiting Trial Prisoners Organisation (Sasapo) believes the likelihood that he will re-offend is low.
“I don’t know what programmes were given to him in order for him to get that parole, but the community got the wrong perception,” Sasapo founder Phindile Zweni said.
“(I) did sense at that time (that he) was already remorseful for what he did.
“However, he had that arrogance of not wanting to admit he was (the) one who did it.
“That being said, many parole boards will not release you if you still insist you are innocent of the crime you were sentenced for.
“So I think he has got remorse now, he has matured now,” Zweni said. While he conceded that the current prison environment needed to change, as he said it lacked programmes to aid rehabilitation, “most prisoners will come out rehabilitated”.
“Those sentenced for five to 10 years, especially youngsters might re-offend.
“You cannot be rehabilitated in five years still at that young age. They want to be numbers, they want to be seen as heroes in their gangs.
“However, people must know that those given a lengthy sentence, that person will never go back to prison.
“I’ve interviewed most lifers across the country’s prisons, a person that sat for 25 years or more, aged over 60 years, there is 1% that went back, but not committing the same offence.”
Hope for the Future founder, Vanessa Nelson, added that the pain of the loss never goes away for victims’ families.
“A perpetrator that raped and killed a woman may come out 30 to 40 years later much older, but for that parent they will never be okay, the memories, heartache and pain will never go away.
“There are still so many questions around: What happened to the other children?
“The community will sit with panic and fear because the justice system fails us so many times,” she said.
Cape Times
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