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Minister of Correctional Services Pieter Groenewald

Pieter Groenewald: Correctional Services

SCORE: C In 2025, Groenewald stepped down from his leadership role in the Freedom Front Plus to focus on his ministerial duties. In June, parliament’s portfolio committee on…

Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald told the parliamentary committee that he would monitor the department’s use of consultants and look “into the amount of money we can save”.  (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Correctional services cuts consultant costs, pushes to build internal capacity

The department is implementing a formal strategy to curb irregular expenditure and align procurement with the treasury

Correctional Services commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale. (DCS)

Prisons commissioner orders inquiry in response to M&G ‘holidays in hospital’ exposé

A deputy commissioner will investigate claims that wealthy prisoners are buying themselves preferential treatment in jail

Thabo Bester appears at Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on August 08, 2023 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Photo by Frikkie Kapp/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Mchunu confirms Thabo Bester was detained and then released while he was on the run

Convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester showed police officers a fraudulent identity document after being apprehended for speeding in July 2022

Oscar Pistorius was jailed for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013

Oscar Pistorius’ lawyer eyes ‘immediate release’ if he gets parole

The former former Paralympian was jailed for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013

Sequelae: The Criminal Procedure Act was amended in 1993 to allow ‘dangerous criminals’ to be detained for an indeterminate time. They do not qualify for parole but may be released if a court finds them no longer dangerous. But some men are being re-sentenced instead. Photo: Getty Images

When only the court can set you free

Should Brannon Petersen only be reconsidered to be released in August next year, he would have spent 27 years in prison, ten years after his indefinite sentence expired

File photo: Marike de Klerk with her then husband, FW de Klerk. File photo

Marike de Klerk’s murderer granted parole

Twenty-two years after being handed two life sentences, Luyanda Mboniswa will be released on parole

Former president Jacob Zuma. Photo: Supplied

Government asks litigants for submissions on Zuma’s fate

Correctional services wants input as it considers a court order that says the former president must return to jail because his medical parole was unlawful

Norman Afzal Simons, convicted for being ‘the station strangler’, arrives at the Kuilsriver Magistrates Court, Cape Town, 7 June 1994. (AFP)

‘Station Strangler’ parole: Mitchells Plain residents want 21 unsolved murder cases reopened

Police will meet Parow residents on Tuesday, two days ahead of his release under house arrest in that area

Former president Jacob Zuma. (Michele Spatari / AFP)

Zuma in Russia for health reasons

The former president will return home once his treatment is complete, his foundation said after a concourt decision made plain he must return to prison

Norman Simons was charged with 22 murders but only convicted of kidnapping and killing a 10-year-old in Mitchells Plain

‘Station Strangler’ due to be freed after 28 years in jail

Norman Simons was charged with 22 murders but only convicted of kidnapping and killing a 10-year-old in Mitchells Plain

Alison Botha in 1999. (Sunday Times/Gallo)

Man who helped Alison Botha after violent 1994 rape, says paroled assailants cannot be rehabilitated

Tiaan Eilerd has said the government must be held responsible when it releases an offender who goes on to commit murder or rape

Xanda Moyo, a Zimbabwean, face charges in connection to the prison break of rapist and murderer Bester. Photo: Supplied

More staff at G4S’ Mangaung prison knew of Bester’s escape – Popcru

Police trade union president calls for an end to the public-private prison system, citing the foreign company is more concerned with profit than rehabilitation

In the dock: Senohe Matsoare, a former G4S employee, appears in the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court on April 11 after it was alleged that insiders assisted in the escape of rapist and murderer Thabo Bester from the Mangaung prison. Photo: Mlungisi Louw/Gallo Images

Thabo Bester is back, but who will keep him behind bars?

What would have happened if nobody had blown the whistle on the escape

Wanted: Thabo Bester was seen on TV during a court appearance. The police have not released a photograph or description of the fugitive. Photo: Shelly Christians/Gallo Images

Suspects linked to Thabo Bester face charges of murder, fraud

Police say that more suspects are likely to be arrested

File photo by Oupa Nkosi

G4S asks for ‘parliamentary privilege’ over Thabo Bester escape

The company says contractual restrictions limit its interaction with the public, stopping it from giving its side of the story to the legislature

On Thursday, correctional services commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale said the findings of an investigation report “clearly revealed” Thabo Bester was assisted in his escape from custody on 3 May. Photo: Supplied

Thabo Bester escape a fraction of the rot at G4S-run private jail

However, abuse and torture at the prison have improved, the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services says

Jailed former Olympic and Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius has been denied parole. (Photo by Charlie Shoemaker/Getty Images)

Oscar Pistorius to stay in jail, says correctional services

Pistorius, who killed Reeva Steenkamp in 2013, will only become eligible for parole in August next year

Can South Africa’s parole system keep four serial killers locked behind bars?

It’s had a 99% success rate for parolees and probationers complying with release conditions over three years but an expert believes the system needs an overhaul

Eight-year-old Tazne Van Wyk who was found dead in a drainpipe outside the town of Worcester. (Jaco Marais)

Tazné van Wyk murder accused admits to absconding parole

Moyhdian Pangkaeker evaded the justice system for about four years during which time he twice absconded while on parole. He faces 27 charges, 24 of which he allegedly committed…