36% of Parolees Re-Offend in Some Cape Flats Areas

Dear Editor

The DA has written to the National Commissioner of Correctional Services to request urgent reform of our current parole system. An existing, but ignored, policy position paper on parole boards must be issued and must be published by the Department of Correctional Services, so that Parliament can start the process to re-engineer the parole system to stop alarming levels of re-offending.

A parliamentary reply from the Minister of Correctional Services, Dr Pieter Groenewald, has highlighted a dangerous link between parole policy failures and the ongoing gang and drug wars plaguing the Cape Flats.

This week the Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Service (JICS), during a meeting of the Select Committee on Security and Justice, pointed out major deficiencies and dysfunctions in the parole system, which support the DA’s call for a total parole review.

Between February last year and February 2025, across the Cape Flats 2,395 parolees were released into communities, and shockingly 254 have reoffended – which is a very disturbing 10.6% recidivism rate in one year.

The recidivism rate in hotspots like Delft and Elsies River is even higher. In the same period 201 parolees were released in Delft, with 73 parolees having reoffended in the same period. This is a shocking 36.3% re-offence rate.

In Elsies River 172 parolees were released, with 52 reoffending. This comprises more than half of all reoffenders across the region doing so in Delft and Elsies River where communities are basically imprisoned in their homes due to crime.

Crucially, 27 of the reoffenders committed crimes involving firearms; a chilling statistic in the context of the gang turf wars and drug-related violence that continue to destabilise these communities. These individuals had been sentenced to a combined 408 years but served only 176 years collectively; an average of just 43% of their original sentences before being released on parole. The chances of rehabilitation having taken place in these short periods of incarceration is small.

There is a clear causal link between the combination of the lack of rehabilitation in correctional facilities and early release of violent offenders on the one hand, and the intensification of organised crime in the Cape Flats on the other. The revolving door of incarceration and parole is feeding directly into gang recruitment and drug trafficking networks, escalating the bloodshed and lawlessness.

The DA reiterates our call for an urgent overhaul of parole policy with a risk-based assessment system that factors in community impact and bars early release for violent and firearm-related offenders unless strict rehabilitation and reintegration conditions are met.

The Department of Correctional Services cannot continue releasing individuals who return to fuel the very conflicts destroying these communities. The people of the Cape Flats and other gang infested areas deserve safety, dignity, and real justice – not a system that perpetuates violence.

Regards

Nicholas Gotsell MP
DA NCOP Member on Security & Justice